11 years old boy murder 8 years old girl over a puppy in US state of Tennessee

CHICAGO: A simple childish spat over a puppy led an 11-year-old boy to shoot and kill his eight-year-old neighbor in the US state of Tennessee, the girl’s grieving mother said.

Latasha Dyer said when the lad requested to see her daughter’s puppy, she was playing outside. Small McKayla said “no,” and soon after was shot in the chest. Dyer was overcome with emotion as she spoke to the local television station from the front steps of a home in White Pine, Tennessee.

 

“When we first moved to White Pine, the little boy was bullying McKayla,” Latasha Dyer told WATE 6 news in a video posted on the station’s website Sunday.

“He was making fun of her, calling her names, just being mean to her. I had to go the principal about him and he quit for a while and then all of a sudden yesterday he shot her.”

“I want her back in my arms, this is not fair. Hold and kiss your babies every night because you’re never promised the next day with them,” she said. “I hope the little boy learned his lesson because he took my baby’s life — and I can’t get her back.”

Dyer described her daughter as “a special little girl, she was a mama’s girl, however awful of a mood you’re in she could consistently get you grin.”

Jefferson County Sheriff Bud McCoig said the lad was charged with first degree homicide.

A judge ordered him held before another hearing, that has been set for October 28 in a juvenile detention center, McCoig told AFP.

“It is a terrible event we have had that an 11-year old would take an eight-year old’s life,” the judge said in a telephone interview.

The lad was inside his house when he shot at the girl along with his dad’s 12-bore shotgun at about McCoig said. The firearm was legally possessed.

“It’s a tragic incident we’ve had that an 11-year-old would take an eight-year-old’s life,” he said in a telephone interview.

McCoig declined to release any additional details, describing that five other kids are now living in the lad’s house and two other kids are now living in the girl’s house and “we are attempting to shield the two, as much as they have been hurt via this disaster.”

“Our prayers are with the families that take part in the terrible event.”

“Attempting to comfort her mother and her aunt and her grandmother, and her grandpa and her sister and her brother: it is the most challenging thing I have ever done.”

Neighbours who have been caring for the pups of the family said they appeared to be searching for the girl.

One might be observed putting next to a makeshift memorial of flowers, balloons and stuffed animals on the steps of the mobile home of the family.