Posted on 08/16/2006 10:11:00 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
MILWAUKEE, WI (AP) -- A 12-year-old girl has been charged in children's court for allegedly shooting her 13-year-old ex-boyfriend in the head and killing him.
The girl is charged with homicide by negligent use of a firearm and possession of a dangerous weapon.
After a hearing Tuesday in Milwaukee County Children's Court, the children's mothers embraced.
"I am so sorry, so sorry," the girl's mother said, her arms outstretched to face Romell D. Clayton's mother.
Court Commissioner Julia Vosper was told that the girl is an honor student who has never been in trouble and the families had known each other for years.
Clayton's mother did not want the girl locked up and called Sunday's shooting "a tragic accident," the judge was told.
According to court records, the girl told police that she and Clayton had recently broken up. He came to her house Saturday at about 11:30 p.m., climbed up to her second-story window and handed her the black Ruger 9mm handgun as he climbed into the house, court records said.
She said that two days earlier, Clayton's older brother had been carrying the gun in the pocket of his hooded sweat shirt and told her it was "for protection on the street," according to court records.
Clayton told her he was having problems at home and had run away. In the morning, the girl said, Clayton began to play with the ammunition clip before putting the gun down.
The girl said they were facing each other, talking and kidding when she picked the gun up. She aimed at the boy's head just a couple inches away. The girl said she told Clayton she had taken the clip out and that there "ain't no bullets in it," according to court records.
She then allegedly pulled the trigger.
The court commissioner allowed the girl to go home with her mother under a 24-hour curfew, with permission to leave the house only for school.
"I am struck by the idea that these kids spent most of the morning playing with this gun," said Joy Hammond, an assistant district attorney. "That is scary."
The victim's 14-year-old brother was charged Tuesday with possessing the same gun several days before the shooting.
You are SO right, and my wife will be watching that crap and bugging me to get rid of my protection! :>)
Any male climbing through my 12 year old daughter's bedroom window at 11:30 at night is liable to be shot. By me.
The title is very misleading and the original title from the newspare says the 12 year old is charged with "homicide".
This title should be changed to accurately state the facts.
Negligent homicide is a much lower offense than murder.
LOL!
I'll bet that hurt his credibility a little.
Notice how there are never voting irregularities when Dems win?
Are you talking about the history of the gun? The article states:
"The victim's 14-year-old brother was charged Tuesday with possessing the same gun several days before the shooting."
Why that gun was still in circulation is a mystery. Wouldn't it have been confiscated when he was charged with having it?
*SHRUG*
How about the actual shooting? Does that strike you as scary?
She had Eddie the Eagle spend the night the day before
At the time of the shooting, the older brother was facing 10 counts of endangering safety by use of a dangerous weapon and a possession of a dangerous weapon charge for pointing a .357-caliber Magnum at elementary school children on a school bus in February. He was living at the home of his mother under a 24-hour court-ordered curfew and was scheduled to appear Aug. 21 before Children's Court Judge Thomas Cooper on those charges.
In that case, the boy - who entered and exited the bus through a rear door when it was stopped - told police he knew the gun was unloaded because he had taken the bullets out of the gun himself. His mother, he told police, kept the gun in a locked safe but he had found the key and removed it.
The way the piece is written it isn't clear to me that they established the 14-yr-old was in possession of it, unless he or the mother admitted that.
Even if they did, you can't go back and charge the boy now that it's out of his custody, can you? They said it was his; but what if that was to cover for someone else, say an older brother?
Second story window?
11:30 pm?
With a gun?
WTH?
Fortunitly, this kind of tragic accident will never again take place in California, as all new guns sold in that state next year will require a "loaded chamber indicator" or they can't be sold to citizens.
(this is not a back door method to gun control as some have suggested. CA legislators fully expect 12 year old children such as this girl to know what a "loaded chamber indicator" is.)
They would if it is a very loud "BANG!"...
Interesting. Makes sense, to me, akin to the 'child protective caps' on Rx meds. Which only kids can open. ;o)
Remember the time Dad set the dogs on you? And then you came back and threatened him so he set his homeys on you?
I didn't think you lived through that!
And why were they spending the night together, if they had broken up?
I'm sure it was an amicable separation.
"There are 8,000,000 stories from the Great Society. This has been one of them."
I see we have a new meaning for 'amicable.' All nighter with the ex?
It would appear so! I love it when I learn something new.
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