Milwaukee mother killed, son accused wanted virtual reality headset.Photo:FOX6 News Milwaukee/Youtube
FOX6 News Milwaukee/Youtube
An 11-year-old boy is to stand trial for allegedly shooting his mother in the face for not buying him a virtual reality headset.
Two psychologists examined the child — who was 10 at the time of the November 2022 shooting in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and remains unidentified — before the Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Jane Carroll made the decision to charge him as an adult,Law & Crimereported in July.
The psychologists had differing opinions on whether the boy understood the nature of the crime and charges against him, theMilwaukee Sentinel Journalreported.
The boy’s attorney expressed doubts to Carroll that he could advocate for himself in his defense, per Law & Crime. However, the judge decided that he was ready to face trial as an adult, stating that the boy had no “major mental diagnosis,” per the outlet.
Quiana Mann.GoFundMe
The boy allegedly unlocked the gun from his mom’s locked safe at around 7 a.m. the same day. He reportedly confessed to detectives that he was angry at his mom for waking him up 30 minutes early and not allowing him to purchase the headset from Amazon.
The complaint added that the child logged into his dead mother’s Amazon account to purchase the Oculus Virtual Reality Headset the next day.
After the shooting, the child allegedly claimed he had accidentally shot his mom in the eye, after which he was permitted to remain with his family, per the complaint. But the next day, family members contacted police with doubts about the boy’s honesty. The complaint noted that he reportedly confessed to his aunt that he had “actually [been] aiming the gun at his mother.”
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The boy received a “concerning diagnosis” from a therapist, leading Mann to place cameras around the home — which were unplugged before the shooting — the complaint said, according to documents from a therapist.
"He’s always said that he hears voices," the child’s grandmother, Lueritha Mann,toldTheDailyBeast. “We tried helping her with him.”
“All of us, everybody that knows her, even her church people,” she added to the outlet. “We all tried helping her with him because we knew he had a mental illness.”
Mann worked in behavioral health and had four children. AGoFundMe accountdescribed her as having a “spirit of giving” and “a love for God that shined so brightly it superseded any pain she may have experienced.”
The 11-year-old boy faces charges of first-degree reckless homicide and was previously in custody with a $50,000 bond. If found guilty of the charges, he could spend up to 60 years in prison.
Milwaukee police told PEOPLE in a December 2022 statement that the department was still “investigating the fatal shooting … that occurred on Monday, November 21, 2022, at approximately 6:50 a.m.”
“MPD would like to remind the public to keep firearms secured with a gun lock and out of the reach of children,” the police spokesperson said.
For more information on safe firearm storage and the most effective ways to protect children from unsecured firearms, visitBeSMARTforkids.org.
source: people.com
