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.
He had to find the key first, which he did. Sounds like it was one of those Stack-On type of cabinets that aren’t actually safes but are better than nothing. Plus this kid loaded the gun, he was on a mission.
Yeah no this is why if you own guns you should only buy combo safes, with at least one that has no key to keep the keys to the rest.
Calling a locksmith is better than calling a coroner.
Also, ffs, choose a good combo, keep it in a secure password manager. Not rocket science.
Or just effectively hide your key. It’s really not hard to keep a key hidden from a 11 year old.
My bet is it was somewhere dumb like in the same room above the door frame or in a drawer.
Oh for sure, but even with a good hiding place kids are shits and have a lotta time on their hands. ESPECIALLY after their preferred game/tablet/whatever has been taken away.
I’ll take no chance over low chance.
From the summary.