An 11-year-old Pennsylvania boy allegedly shot his father to death after previously having his Nintendo Switch handheld gaming system taken away.
The boy is facing criminal homicide charges after a 13 January shooting at his family’s home in Duncannon Borough.
As put in court documents obtained and reported by WGAL News 8, the case illustrates how easily children can access guns in the US, where firearms are ubiquitous.
The victim was reportedly discovered in the bedroom he shared with his wife, which court documents say is connected to their son’s bedroom by a closet.
Police reported it was the child’s birthday, and he had entered the bedroom shouting: “Daddy’s dead.” Troopers at the scene also reportedly said that they heard the son tell his mother: “I killed Daddy.”
Police said the shooting occurred after the couple had gone to bed shortly past midnight. The child reportedly told authorities that he had had a good day with his parents, but the documents reportedly state that he became “mad” when his father told him it was time to go to bed.
According to the news outlet, the court document says that the boy told police he found a key to the gun safe in his father’s drawer in his parent’s bedroom. He reportedly unlocked it while attempting to locate his Nintendo Switch – which had previously been taken away from him – and found a gun.
Maybe something good can come out of it. The kid has serious issues which hopefully he gets intense therapy for, rather than not killing his dad and growing up being some psycho killer that terrorizes the general public.
He’s likely going to have mental health issues now, as a result of the shooting.
As for pre-existing mental health issues; to me the most likely condition seems to be “was 11”, which most people grow out of. As a thought experiment, how many 11 year olds are there that you would be comfortable having a gun unsupervised.
Oh he’s going to be in the US prison system now. He will get next to zero mental health care provided.
Yep, 10 years old is the age in PA where a child can be charged with a crime. Placing him in the juvenile court/prison system. Under 10 and courts could only send him to a psychiatric facility.
He is still under the cutoff for where they could charge him as an adult (14).
At his age, that is not necessarily the case.
dont think therapy will help once you already murdered someone, it mightve help if he had ideations of it.