Sheriff: 9-year-old kills mother, self (CNN)

[ahem]

(CNN) -- A 9-year-old Alcoa, North Carolina, boy shot and killed his mother before taking his own life, according to the Warren County Sheriff's Department.

Taylor Jones apparently killed his mother, 38-year-old Gloria Pulley, shortly after midnight Saturday morning, the department said. He left a suicide note in which he apologized for her death.

Authorities have not been able to determine a motive.

(more)
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/04/18/nc.shooting/index.html

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

1. What?!

Oh man. Oh man. How wrong can something be?

[Redstone]

2. Guns, guns, we need more guns in this country!

And they need to be easier to get!

Redstone

[NYC Liberal]

5. Let them keep their guns -- ban bullets. n/t

[AlmightyTallest]

21. Chris Rock

had the idea to make bullets outrageously expensive. "Motherf*cker musta done something, he's got $30,000 worth of bullets in 'im."

[Cuban_Liberal]

3. That is so sad on so many levels.

Damn!

:cry:

[bobthedrummer]

4. I'm at a loss for words on reading this.

:cry:

[Redstone]

6. And I see that "A family gun" was used...

Does that mean we should all have a "family gun," kinda like a "family pet?"

Redstone

[rocktivity]

7. I have a feeling he would have found an alternative to a gun

His father lives in Georgia, he and his mother in North Carolina. I wonder if missing his dad had anything to do with it. But what was a NINE-year old doing thinking about suicide, not to mention having access to a gun?

:(
rocknation

[mahatmakanejeeves]

15. "what was a NINE-year old doing thinking about suicide"

It can start that early.

[politicat]

32. In seriously unhappy families, it's not uncommon.

As a therapist, I've seen six year olds wish for death, but be unable to do anything about it.

At about the same age, I contemplated the bottle of anti-freeze in the garage and the econo-bottle of tylenol. Eventually, the family dynamic changed.

[Zhade]

33. I tried to off myself at age ten. It happens.

Thankfully, I didn't realize I picked an impossible method until I felt a little better and stopped trying - my method was to suffocate myself with a pillow. Of course, lying on my back and pressing down hard enough to stop my breathing eventually made me lose conciousness and thus relax the pressure, which allowed me to breath again.

[Pert_UK]

48. I don't know how you can draw that conclusion.....

If a gun hadn't been readily available to him, what other method would he have used that was as effective, simple, impersonal, irreversible and deadly?

[Jack Rabbit]

8. How much time does CNN devote to this story?

I can understand if a local television station in North Carolina gives it quite a bit of time. It should.

However, a national network like CNN needn't give this more than ten seconds every hour. Of course, whatever time CNN devotes to stories like this one is time it doesn't spend on the Frat Boy's foul ups. Just like last week when they give us the play-by-play of a hostage situation in New Jersey. All day.

[tavalon]

9. Having lived in a highly abusive family

from the age of eight (when my mother died and my father and stepmonster got me) until twelve (when I fired them), I tend to look at these things with the eye towards the abuse. I would have murdered my father and stepmother if I could have found the means and kept myself out of jail. Luckily I found another way out. I'm not saying that's what happened here, but I'm saying it's a possibility. How many nine year olds have that much rage and where does it come from?

[Redstone]

28. Tavalon, tell me something...

You say you "would have murdered your father and stepmother if you had found the means," and I believe you.

If "the means" had been available in the form of a handgun in the house, would your life have turned out different? My feeling is that it would have.

Oh, and also: You "fired them" at the age of twelve? I salute you for great courage at a young age. You have my respect.

Redstone

[tavalon]

49. I don't think I would have had the guts

to shoot them. Having said that, yes, if I had, my life would have turned out very differently and not at all as well as it did. Seven years of therapy had a hand in that as well.

[Redstone]

51. Thanks for replying to my question.

I hope that the people who think everyone should have a gun around the house read it.

Good for you for squaring your life around after such a rough start. Therapy can take a long time but can work well, yes?

Go easy...

Redstone

[ninkasi]

57. Tavalon, I'm so glad

that you found the strength, the courage, at the age of 12, to "divorce" your abusers. You must have come through sheer hell, and I admire you for having the will to remove yourself from that situation.

I really don't understand how so many of today's children survive the lives they are made to live. Society, or large portions of it, seem to have become so cold and ruthless and without compassion.

To think that any child's life is so bad that she or he is willing to go to the extreme of ending it, is heartbreaking. Again, I am glad and thankful that you pulled through, and admire your strength. I pray that other children out there will have someone who cares enough to get them through such painful times.

[Voltaire99]

44. A brave post

I respect your comments.

[sakabatou]

10. That's the most F'd up new peice ever...

[RetroLounge]

11. That is SO fucked up...

of course if the mother had a concealed carry permit she could have shot him first.

Oh wait, that would have sucked too.

Guns! Guns! Guns!

RL

[progressivebydesign]

12. That's just tragic.

Immaturity and guns. Bad combination. Wonder if this is what Ted Nugent had in mind during his rants at the NRA convention.

The child should never had access to a gun. A 9 year old doesn't really grasp the whole idea of death and life. It's not developmentally possible at that age. As I was telling my girls just last night.. if you have a gun in your home, statistics show that if it is fired in your home it will kill or injure a family member through suicide, ignorance, anger, or immaturity... rarely is it used for self defense against intruders.

What a horrible story.

[Window]

13. How horrible!

Nine years old, and a sucicide note. Jesus.

[intheflow]

14. The story just says he killed his mother.

It doesn't say he murdered her. It could have been an accident, not meditated.

Tragic all the same. :cry:

[DearAbby]

17. Why is our youth willing to do anything to escape LIFE?

This is so sad. :cry:

[1monster]

18. I was thinking the same thing: Perhaps he was playing with the gun and

unintentionally killed his mother, maybe not knowing the gun was loaded. Then, in a state of shock he killed himself after leaving an apology note.

[NYC]

26. Autopsy called it murder.

...Autopsy results released to law enforcement by the North Carolina Medical Examiner's office confirm the shooting was a murder-suicide, Williams said...

[zanne]

55. I don't believe it. No way.

Some things are just too horrendous to believe, and this is one of them. Couldn't somebody have murdered the mother and son and just left a suicide note? And how does a 9 year-old even know about suicide notes? Something's fishy here.

[NYC]

56. Autopsies are usually pretty good at figuring out

suicide vs. murder, so I doubt someone murdered both, and left a note by the 9 year old.

9 year olds know about suicide notes. Maybe not all of them, but some certainly do.

It is highly unlikely for a 9 year old to do such a thing, but it is not impossible. That it's too horrendous to believe doesn't mean it didn't happen. It's improbable, but possible.

Some people have been exposed to suicide and suicide attempts, even by age 9. One of the things I wondered was whether his mother had ever attempted suicide. That would have given him quite a bit of information about it.

[KamaAina]

16. And remember, guns don't kill people...

...nine-year-olds kill people. :cry:

Just try to remember, it's still the greatest country in the world...

[AtTheEndOfTheDay]

19. And so do 13 year olds,

using a baseball bat. This isn't about guns, it's about abuse and depression and other negative human emotions and thinking that can start young.

[nonconformist]

45. Of course it's about guns

If that little boy didn't have access to a loaded weapon, the chances are very high he and his mother would still be alive now.

Of course the issues that cause these types of tragedies should be a major focus so that we can identify and help other families, but I'm getting a little tired of the "it's not the guns, it's _____" mantra that inevitably gets thrown in within minutes of these types of stories breaking. Children getting a hold of loaded firearms is most definitely a major issue in this case.

I think you'd be hard pressed to find a 9 yr old that is strong and large enough to bludgeon an adult to death.

[Redstone]

53. Oh, here we go again...

If he couldn't get a gun, he could have used a knife, or a pair of scissors, or a garden shovel, or a frying pan, or, or, or, or.

Even a strong 9-year-old, unless they got lucky, probably wouldn't be able to kill and adult with a knife before the adult could take the knife away from him or her.

Of course it's about guns. The other stuff too, but let's stop finding excuses.

Redstone

[Ellen Forradalom]

20. See at what an early age males learn

that females' lives are theirs to throw away.

[Richard Steele]

30. I fail to see how your comment is applicable or appropriate. n/t

[nonconformist]

37. What in the fricking frack are you talking about?

Do you honestly think that this tragedy was was the result of this 9 yr old little boy being a chauvinist???

[Ellen Forradalom]

58. No

But when, I ask you, was the last time you heard of a woman killing her husband and then herself? Or a daughter killing her father and then herself?

The most disturbing aspect of these murder suicides to me is the assumption of the suicide that it's OK to murder the nearest female relative.

[lateo]

52. Ummm

That was just a fucked up stupid comment...

[karlrschneider]

22. Holy shit...just got home, heard a blurb about this on the car radio,

I thought it was an adult "child"...they never said his age. How horrible......

no words...

[truthisfreedom]

23. hmm. so did they do conclusive tests to determine that the 9-year-old was

the killer?

[barb162]

24. this kid could have been undiagnosed bipolar, he could have

been beaten at school, he could have been abused, etc. It really makes me wonder.

[leesa]

25. It's what America wants.

[Sean Reynolds]

27. Obviously if the mother had a gun she could have defended herself.

TIC

[Erika]

36. LaPierre, Nugent, and the idiot DeLay agree with you.

This mother should have carried heat. Next thing you know liberals will be changing the law to excuse 9 year olds from capital punishment. Hang them, inject them, shoot them, but it's time 9 year olds quit being coddled by the liberal courts. Freeper off.

[Dr Fate]

39. Hell- she could have had TWO guns if she had!!!

What was she thinking????

[genieroze]

29. Terrible

:cry:

[in_cog_ni_to]

31. *sigh* This is so, so sad and just ONE reason I hate guns.

That poor tormented little boy. 9 years old??? :cry:

[nonconformist]

34. Oh my God... I audibly gasped when I read this

I have a 9 yr old son, he'll be 10 next month. He is a BABY... I can't even fathom this.

[Lex]

42. Yeah, I was just putting together a model car with my 9 yr old nephew

a couple of weeks ago. Just a little kid, he is. Has to be reminded to wipe his mouth after eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, ya know?

Thinking about another kid his age contemplating murder and then suicide, and suicide note? Unbelievable.

Jesus.

[Erika]

35. Bush has taught that violence is the solution for all problems

The boy killed his mother as we are slaughtering innocent Iraqis.

[Dr Fate]

38. Children get the idea that problems are solved w/ violence from somewhere.

My guess is that the Govt. and "Liberal Media" teaches it to them.

[nonconformist]

41. While I don't disagree with that sentiment

In fact, I totally agree with it, I don't know how applicable it is in this case.

Maybe because I have a son the same age as this little boy, but all I can imagine is that he was a very troubled and tortured soul. I'll refrain from jumping to the conclusion that he was abused, although I guess that is a possibility as well.

To be honest, my first thought was that he shot her completely accidentally or in a fit of childhood rage ("time to turn off the Nintendo") not realizing what he was doing, and after it happened he was overwhelmed with guilt and grief and wanted to join her/didn't think he deserved to live.

Whatever the specific details are, we may never know. In any event, this is an unbelievable tragedy.

[Erika]

43. A tragedy? It's a crime. Quit listening to liberal media.

This boy should be strung up as an example to other 9 year old evil-doers. We will kill all those who believe in killing until the killing stops. Freeper and Falwell off.

[d_b]

40. ...

unreal.

[Voltaire99]

46. Prozac or other SSRIs?

If so, it will have been quite a year already for those funny little "side effects."

But let's not leap to any conclusion. There may have been abuse. There may have been mental illness. There may have been nothing more than a gun...

And the ethos of our age.

[Erika]

47. Quit making liberal excuses

This boy should be held accountable and responsible for his evil doing. He's likely the spawn of the devil and we should smite him instantly. (Far right Falwell and Freepers off.)

[OzarkDem]

50. Anti-depressant use in children

is becoming increasingly problematic. While facts aren't known in this case, we've had a rash of child suicides in our area that may be attriuted to their use.

Poor, poor baby.

[Mizmoon]

54. Watch out for stories that support Bush's "mental health screening"

We have no idea what happened. The child was not known to the sheriff as some violent schizophrenic. There are not enough details to know why this terrible thing happened. Maybe more will be forthcoming. For now I eye all claims of blame with skepticism.