Kansas boy, 14, charged with fatally shooting stepbrother, 9

[depakid]

A 14-year-old boy has been charged with fatally shooting his 9-year-old stepbrother at their rural Kansas home.

Saline County Attorney Ellen Mitchell said the 14-year-old was charged today as a juvenile with one count of first-degree premeditated murder in the death of his stepbrother.

She says she is awaiting investigative reports and doesn't know whether she will seek adult charges. A hearing is planned for 9 a.m. Thursday. County sheriff's Capt. Brian Shea says the older boy called 911 Tuesday afternoon and said he shot his brother accidentally. The two boys were home alone while their parents worked.

But Shea says the investigation revealed the shooting was no accident.

Read: http://www.kansascity.com/2010/06/02/1988041/kansas-boy-14-charged-with-fatally.html#ixzz0pt2FyJ3I

[DrDan]

1. so sad . . . such a useless death . . .

I am sure the parents will receive lots of sympathy . . . when the prosecutors should be going after them as well

[sailor65]

2. Yes, they should

penalties have always been way too light for those who allow their firearms out of their control. I should expect to be severely punished if one of my guns is ever used to hurt an innocent.

[stray cat]

5. One son murdered, one in jail - first degree murder doesn't require a gun

I suspect the parent's are suffering

[Buzz cook]

18. That makes you a gun grabber

In the eyes of many gunners. Any restriction on how they use store or carry a gun is a commie pinko plot foisted on brave 2nd amendment heroes by gun grabbing anti-American Nazis.

Holding people responsible is the slippery slope that leads to black helicopters and mass hysteria.

[PavePusher]

19. If one of your possesions is removed from your control and used to harm someone...

Forex: your car, an axe, screwdriver, kitchen knife, wire, telephone...

Should you be "held responsible" to the same extent as you advocate for firearms?

Why or why not?

Which is more important, tool or intent?

For the record, I believe punishment should be based solely on harm done, intent and reasonableness of actions. The tools chosen are largely morally irrelevent.

[Taitertots]

20. Well then you should have no problem quoting the people who did that

I mean you wouldn't want to look like a fool making accusations with absolutely nothing to support them.

[TheCowsCameHome]

3. 1st degree premeditated. Another gun death.

What ever happened to the plain old fist fight?

[pipoman]

11. Still happen all the time...

and occasionally one murders the other....Cain and Abel come to mind...not that I am a super religious one, jus' seems these have happened since the memory of man runs contrary...

[one-eyed fat man]

4. Like these guys?

1Adam knew his wife Eve intimately, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain. She said, "I have had a male child with the LORD's help."
2Then she also gave birth to his brother Abel. Now Abel became a shepherd of a flock, but Cain cultivated the land.
3In the course of time Cain presented some of the land's produce as an offering to the LORD.
4And Abel also presented an offering — some of the firstborn of his flock and their fat portions. The Lord had regard for Abel and his offering,
5but He did not have regard for Cain and his offering. Cain was furious, and he was downcast.
6Then the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you furious? And why are you downcast?
7If you do right, won't you be accepted? But if you do not do right, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must master it."
8Cain said to his brother Abel, "Let's go out to the field." And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.
9Then the Lord said to Cain, "Where is your brother Abel?" "I know not," he replied. "Am I my brother's keeper?"
10Then He said, "What have you done? Your brother's blood cries out to Me from the ground!
11So now you are cursed from the ground that opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood you have shed.
12If you work the land, it will never again give you its yield. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth."
13But Cain answered the Lord, "My punishment is too great to bear!
14Since You are banishing me today from the soil, and I must hide myself from Your presence and become a restless wanderer on the earth, whoever finds me will kill me."
15Then the Lord replied to him, "Therefore, whosoever slayeth Cain vengeance will be taken on him sevenfold. "And the Lord set a Mark upon Cain,lest any finding him should kill him.
16Then Cain went out from the Lord's presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

– Genesis 4:1-16

Brothers have been killing their brothers and lying about it for how long? They did for timeless millenia before guns were invented and likely there will still be murderous bastards who never set their phasers on stun long into the future.

[depakid]

17. Now that's the BEST rationalization for gun obsessions yet!

The Old Testament!

:rofl:

[one-eyed fat man]

21. again?

Brothers have been killing their brothers and lying about it for how long?

The Cain and Abel story is part of many ancient texts and traditions. The Old Testament version is but one. The Qur'an also contains this story, with the names Qabil and Habil. Cain and Abel also appear in a number of other texts. Allusions to Cain and Abel as an archetype of fratricide persist in numerous references and retellings, through medieval art and Shakespearean works up to present day fiction.

That siblings have been killing each other since before man could write about it, using everything from the bare hands, to rocks, sharp sticks, poisons, yes, (gasp) even 'da ebil gunz', and dollar to a donut, there will still be murderous bastards who commit murder with weapons we can't even envision.

Barring some developmental deficiency, most people would expect that a 14 year old would know that killing your step-brother is socially unacceptable. Barring evidence to the contrary, most folks would expect moral restraint to be sufficient to reasonably socialized and responsible teenagers.

You expect your kids to stay out of your bedroom, wallet, liquor or gun cabinet. You expect them to ask for the keys to car. When they go out, you expect to know where, how long, who with, etc. Now you either have reason to trust and believe your kids because of how you have raised them, and how they have been trustworthy in the past. Despite trust, but verify, sometimes parents are blind-sided; sometimes they choose not to see.

However, from the perspective of impending great-grandfatherhood, I'd say a more usual circumstance is this example: When my oldest couldn't understand why I was on to him over some crap he tried to slip past me, I told him, "That trick was old when my father tried that on his old man, and when your kid tries it, it won't fool you either!"

[pacalo]

6. "The two boys were home alone while their parents worked."

That's the sentence that stood out for me, yet the author of the article seemed to regard it as an incidental point rather than the thrust of the problem. If anyone deserves to go to prison, it's the parents who provided the opportunity & the means for this accident tragedy.

Very sad.

[one-eyed fat man]

7. Two questions?

First, the authorities didn't buy the "accident" claim, why do you?

Second, when you were fourteen, how much of the crap you pulled your folks never knew about, was not of your doing, or by your thinking, put them in jail?

Negligence might be a consideration if a toddler drank the Drano under the sink. A teenager, barring some developmental deficiency, knows that shooting your brother is unacceptable behavior.

[pacalo]

15. Do you understand the purpose of applying the strike function to a word?

When I struck the word "accident" I meant that it was a huge understatement when used by the author of the article. The killing could have been prevented with forethought & prevention by the parents.

I pulled a lot of crap when I was a teenager, but my parents did their part in educating & guiding us.

Your response & the one following yours are great examples of why I don't come to DU much anymore. There's no polite, mature discourse when people disagree; rudeness seems to be the rule. It's a turnoff. Really.

[one-eyed fat man]

16. Criminal behavior

I maintain that a normal fourteen year boy old knows that murder is wrong. Criminal behavior is callously deliberate. Stupid behavior sometimes results in unintended tragedy.

There are generations of farm kids who at fourteen, and younger, went hunting after school to put food on the table. They had sense enough not to shoot the livestock, roadsigns or their siblings. By the time a kid is fourteen you expect some level of responsibility and trustworthiness. You probably leave your car keys where your teenager can get to them. You expect him not to steal the family car.

If a kid can't be trusted by the time he is that age, he is likely a lost cause already. By that time it'd be tough for the best of parents to forestall every misdeed he might undertake.

[PavePusher]

10. I'm glad your life is so much better managed...

and never has situations that require teenage kids to actually be responsible for a few hours at a time.

[pacalo]

14. I've left my sons home alone many times when they were teenagers

but never with with guns & ammunition left available to them in our absence. You think there's something wrong with that line of thinking?

[pipoman]

12. I've been to Assaria

it is a quiet tiny little town on the Prairie. There is one small manufacturer in town, a convenience store (ran by the mayor IIRC), and the Co-op. Most people in Assaria either work in farming or in Salina 15 miles north..Salina has several large manufacturing companies on the south end, all within 10-15 miles..Phillips lighting, Tony's Pizza, Excide Batteries, etc..Most people in those parts would believe it is acceptable to leave a 14 and 9 year old home together for a few hours a day..leaving a handgun accessible, if that is what happened, may be actionable..We agree on the "very sad" part..

[proteus_lives]

8. Ban stepbrothers. It's the only way we'll be safe.

[TPaine7]

9. Murder should be illegal. n/t

[pipoman]

13. This is where

the civil libertarian in me is outraged. I don't believe that a 14 year old should be questioned by police without a lawyer..no Miranda needed. If the 14 year old IS questioned by police without a lawyer, then I believe "adult charges" should be off the table for prosecutors. I have had 14 year old boys, they are pretty easy for an authority figure to scare and brow beat.