VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. — A 14-year-old girl involved early this month in a shootout with Volusia County Sheriff’s Office deputies will be charged as an adult, while a 12-year-old boy involved in the shootout will be charged in juvenile court, prosecutors announced Thursday.

The two will be charged with three felonies, including attempted first degree murder of a law enforcement officer, said R.J. Larizza, state attorney for the 7th Judicial Circuit.

That charge carries a mandatory life sentence for an adult, Larizza said, but he added that in all counts, “the judge has the discretion, ultimately, to issue juvenile sanctions” for the 14-year-old.

Deputies shot and critically wounded the 14-year-old girl after she and the boy fled a Deltona juvenile home and broke into a nearby house, where they found nobody home. But they found guns and opened fire on sheriff’s deputies who confronted them, reports said.

Deputies opened fire and shot the girl after they said she twice emerged from the garage with a shotgun and pointed it at them, according to reports. Officials said deputies did all they could to try to talk to the children and deescalate the situation.

"These young defendants are alive today because of the training, compassion and incredible restraint displayed by our deputies," Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood said in a statement Thursday, "and I have faith that our State Attorney's Office will make sure that their efforts were not in vain."

In addition to attempted first degree murder, the two will be charged with burglary of a dwelling while armed with a firearm, which carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment, Larizza said.

They also will be charged with felony criminal mischief, he said.

“It’s very disturbing when you’re looking at such serious charges when you’re looking at such young folks,” Larizza said at a Thursday news conference.

Larizza said his office consulted with the sheriff’s office on the charges and the decision to charge the 14-year-old as an adult. He noted that his office also decided recently to charge a 14-year-old as an adult in a St. Johns County murder case.

“When you look at the overall facts, circumstances, age and other considerations, we believe that it was the right thing to do,” he said of the Volusia County case.

He said the case calls for compassion and that officials must "balance public safety with the needs of these" children.

Authorities said the girl had been accused of stealing puppies and of setting fires on vacant lots, The Associated Press reported. They also cited a history of problems at the Deltona juvenile home.

Larizza said he spoke with Josefina Tamayo, acting secretary of the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice, "and I’m convinced that she and her staff are commited to taking a look at the juvenile system and making attempts to learn something from this event. This was a horrible and disturbing event that makes you scratch your head and wonder why it happened."

He said officials seek "better practices on how to address the very difficult and the very challenging issues of where do you house kids that are in foster care," plus delinquint children and others in the judicial process.

The 12-year-old will remain in a Volusia County juvenile deterntion facility, and the girl will be held in a Volusia County jail, Larizza said.

"We’re lucky that both of these individuals are alive and we didn’t lose any law enforcement," he said. "That’s the blessing … Without a homicide, the case is easier to resolve."