An 11-year-old boy faces homicide charges after shooting and killing his father, according to Pennsylvania State Police.

It happened on their son’s birthday, police say. According to the court documents, the couple went to bed shortly after midnight after singing happy birthday to Clayton.

Clayton told investigators that he had a good day with his parents. “When his dad told him he needed to go to bed, he got mad at him,” the documents stated.

When police asked Clayton what happened, he said, “I shot somebody,” according to the affidavit. “He admitted that he had someone in mind whom he was going to shoot, whom he identified as his father,” the documents said.

The wife told police there was a gun safe in the bedroom, but she denied knowing where the key was kept, according to investigators.

Clayton said he found the key in his father’s drawer and unlocked the safe in an attempt to find his Nintendo Switch, which was previously taken away from him, according to the documents.

Clayton admitted to “removing the gun from the safe, loading bullets into it and walking over to his father’s side of the bed,” the affidavit stated. “He pulled back the hammer and fired the gun at his father.”

When police asked Clayton what he thought would happen when he fired the gun, he said that “he was mad, and he had not thought about that,” investigators stated.

  • Pat_Riot@lemmy.today
    13·
    9 hours ago

    I’m guessing now that you have never held a firearm. Guns are extremely simple machines. Every eleven year old has the brain power to figure out how one works. This 11 year old lived in a house with one, and was at very least aware of its existence, and knew that there was a safe, was willing to go through his parents’ dressers already. That 11 year old also knows what that gun is going to do. 11 year olds know how to lie to try to protect themselves. They might not have a full sense of permanence, but everybody knows what a gun does at that age.