An 11-year-old Wisconsin boy accused of murdering his mother has been ordered to stand trial.

The boy is charged with first-degree intentional homicide. The district attorney’s office is seeking to try him as an adult. The court has ordered that the boy’s name not be revealed because he may still be tried as a child.

In July, the court found the boy competent, according to court records.

Milwaukee Detective Timothy Keller testified in court on Tuesday about speaking with the boy about his mother’s death.

The detective said he questioned the boy the next day and the then 10-year-old boy admitted shooting her but called it an accident, according to WISN.

“[The boy] stated that he took up a shooting stance and was pointing the gun at her as she was walking towards him and asking him to put it down. And that’s when he indicated that he fired the gun with his intent to scare her by shooting the wall behind her,” Keller testified.

“He had made a purchase on his mother’s Amazon account for some virtual reality goggles the morning after this homicide occurred. And [family] were concerned because he had had an argument with her about whether he could have these prior to the homicide,” Keller said.

  • pixxelkick@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Its interesting how if the boy shot and murdered someone else, the mother would be the one responsible for it, due to leaving the gun somewhere the boy could access it and shoot it.

    But now that she specifically is the one who got shot, with her own gun, now the boy is the one responsible.

    It doesnt seem logical that you can have both, who gets shot with the gun shouldnt shift responsibility. She left an extremely dangerous and lethal weapon laying around where the 11 year old boy could just get his hands on it. She is responsible for her own death through her own negligence.

    It’s actually insane that this literal child is being tried for an adult, a threshold he is barely half way towards hitting. This kid literally is still in elementary school and has only just started to be taught basics of multiplication. His brain isn’t even remotely close to done developing, and he hasnt even really started puberty yet.

    If he was, say, 16 or 17, sure I could see it. But fucking eleven? Insane, ludicrous, actually crazy. That is not an adult, and anyone trying to try the kid as an adult is a fucking lunatic.

    • SheeEttin@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      She would be responsible for an unsecured firearm and child endangerment, but I don’t think they’re usually charged with the actual murder (unless it would be a felony murder rule).

      But this kid certainly shouldn’t be tried as an adult.

      In any case, I’d like to back waaaaay up and ask how this kid got access to a loaded gun in the first place.

      • JokklMaster@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I think it’s more often an involuntary manslaughter charge due to the gross negligence of allowing a child access to a gun. But sometimes it can be counted as murder even if it was unintentional if you were doing something so reckless and stupid you should have realized it would likely result in someone’s death. There’s an argument to be made that keeping a gun somewhere a child could access it would count.

      • pixxelkick@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Idk, I was programming computers at age 11

        This has no baring on the issue and is orthogonal.

        At 11 years old, their brain is not even remotely close to fully developed. They havent even started puberty yet. It is unhinged and ridiculous to try an eleven year old as an adult.

        They literally are only just barely halfway in their development to adulthood.

          • pixxelkick@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            I don’t know about you but I was long past knowing whether or not to point a loaded gun at my parents and then immediately go online with their account to buy a nice VR headset.

            Well see the neato thing is, you weren’t raised by that kids mother.

            You might be able to, hopefully, connect the dots that the kid who perhaps struggles with the concept of whether to point a loaded gun at their mother is also going to be the same kid who has a mother… who leaves a loaded gun lying around accessible to a child