A 10-year-old Milwaukee boy fatally shot his mother in the face because she would not buy him a virtual reality headset – then logged onto her Amazon account and ordered it the next day, prosecutors said.
The boy has been charged as an adult with first-degree reckless homicide and is being held in a juvenile detention facility, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, which didn’t identify him because of his age.
He initially told police he got the gun from his mom’s bedroom about 7 a.m. Nov. 21 and went to the basement where she was doing laundry.
The boy claimed he was twirling the weapon around his finger when it went off. He told his 26-year-old sister, who called 911, the news outlet reported.
But a day later, his relatives contacted authorities questioning his story and he admitted to police that he intentionally pointed the gun at his mother, according to a complaint cited by the outlet.
The boy’s aunt said that when she picked him up the day after the shooting, he grabbed a set of house keys that contained a key to the gun’s container, the paper reported.
When she asked him about the shooting, he told her he pointed the weapon at his mom, who said: “Why do you have that? Put it down,” according to the complaint.
The day after he allegedly shot his mom in the face, he logged onto her Amazon account and ordered an Oculus Virtual Reality headset – and also assaulted his 7-year-old cousin, documents cited by the Sentinel say.
“I’m really sorry for what happened. I’m sorry for killing my mom,” the boy said without empathy or compassion, according to the aunt.
Relatives told authorities about his history of disturbing behavior, which included an incident where he swung his puppy by its tail when he was 4, the Sentinel reported, citing a complaint.
Six months ago, he caused an explosion when he set a balloon containing a flammable liquid on fire, the family told investigators.
They reported that the boy told them he heard imaginary voices.
When police interviewed the boy again, he told them he aimed the gun at his mom and tried shooting a wall to “scare her,” but struck her when she walked in front of him, according to the complaint.
He told investigators he got the semiautomatic Glock 43 from the lock box because his mom woke him up early at 6 a.m. instead of 6:30 a.m. — and because she wouldn’t let him make a purchase on Amazon.
The boy made his initial appearance Friday in Milwaukee County Court, whetr the cash bond was set at $50,000.
He is scheduled to appear at the Youth and Family Justice Center in Milwaukee on Dec. 7.
An attorney for the boy, Angela Cunningham, said she was still gathering information about the case.
“This is an absolute family tragedy. I don’t think anybody would deny or disagree with that,” she told the Sentinel.
“The adult system is absolutely ill-equipped to address the needs of a 10-year-old child.”
State law requires children as young as 10 to be charged as adults for certain serious crimes, including first-degree intentional homicide, first-degree reckless homicide and attempted first-degree intentional homicide.
Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson told reporters that “anytime there’s violence that happens in Milwaukee whether it’s committed by someone who’s 10 years old or much older than that, that gives me pause.
“I don’t want to see anybody hurt or lose their lives in the city,” he added, Fox 6 Now reported.