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
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    101
    arrow-down
    7
    ·
    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
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      43
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      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
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        13
        ·
        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.

        • QuinceDaPence@kbin.social
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          1 year ago

          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

          Just depends on the state. So you have to look at the definitions. State A might have Murder and Manslaughter, State B might have Murder and Negligent Homicide and State C might have Murder-I and Murder-II or first and second degree.

          I’ve seen a bunch where charges will come out of Texas for Assault and people freak out thinking it’s being played down despite Texas Assault being the same as Battery in their state. Or Aggravated Assault being the same as Attempted Murder in their state.

      • pixxelkick@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        5
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        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
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            4
            arrow-down
            2
            ·
            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

    • hill@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      arrow-down
      25
      ·
      1 year ago

      So by your logic and reasoning this poor woman apparently committed suicide(?)!

      Yes he’s a kid but he also resides in a state where anyone committing this crime is tried as an adult - that doesn’t mean that he’ll go to an adult prison if the outcome is prison time. If you read anything about it you’ll know he’s a straight-up psychopath and needs serious mental help!

      • creamed_eels@toast.ooo
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        14
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        If you read anything about it you’ll know he’s a straight-up psychopath and needs serious mental help

        Source? Because the above article didn’t contain any of that info.

      • zaph@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        12
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        If you read anything about it you’ll know he’s a straight-up psychopath and needs serious mental help!

        So he needs help and not to be tried as an adult making decisions with a clear mind. I love it when people disagree with themselves in 3 sentences or less.

      • pixxelkick@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        1 year ago

        So by your logic and reasoning this poor woman apparently committed suicide(?)!

        Lol, what?

        Negligence is not Suicide. Suicide is intentional. If she put the gun in the childs hand and forced him to shoot her with her own hands, that would be suicide.

        But negligence is what its name implies… Neglect.

        If you are an idiot and accidently kill yourself, do you think that is suicide? Obviously not, right? You are of course still responsible for having done it, but an accident != suicide.

      • HubertManne@kbin.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        5
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        I think the OP was under the impression the child would not be charged but the parent would if they had shot anyone else. In that circumstance he made it would not really be suicide as much as an accident I think. Like accidentally shooting yourself due to negligence in handling the firearm but here the negligence is allowing access to a child.