A Texas father shot and killed a teenage boy who he found in his daughter’s bedroom early Thursday morning.
Harris County deputies said that the 16-year-old daughter snuck the 17-year-old boy into her bedroom. Her younger brother saw the boy, and notified the father.
When the father asked about the boy, the girl reportedly claimed she did not know him. The man called 911, and then he got into an argument with the boy.
The father said that he opened fire when the boy suddenly moved his hands. The 17-year-old boy died at the scene.
According to The Houston Chronicle, the father complained that he was having panic attacks, and was taken to a nearby hospital. Deputies said that the man appeared to be on medication.
You know as a teenage boy I cannot tell you the number of times that I was almost caught after sneaking into a young lady's room. Always invited of course.
To be honest I used to worry about something like this happening, but looking back I seriously doubt that any of those angry fathers would have opened fire on me. Because even though this was during the wild a wooly days of Alaska's past, we were not animals.
Simply killing somebody in a fit of anger certainly happened, but it was usually a domestic dispute between spouses or a drug deal gone bad.
It seems we are becoming less civilized, instead of more civilized.
And you KNOW, since this is Texas, that this guy will more than likely get off and use the Stand Your Ground defense to do so.
That girl (and her little) brother are going to have to live with this the rest of their lives, and in the scheme of things, they didn't do anything wrong - it was their father. Convenient for him to have 'panic attacks' and turn himself into a victim here.
ReplyDeleteAs a parent, I understand being outraged at the thought of finding a love interest of my child in my home, but reacting with violence instead of talking to them and calling in the other parents is where I'd go, turning it into a life lesson. Not a death sentence.
Raw Story also used a stock photo of a white man holding a handgun for this story, that happens to involve a black family and victim. Curious how readers all assumed the shooter was a white man. How the tables have turned, the NRA must be proud.
ReplyDeleteThe only way to stop a horny teenager, is an idiot with a gun.
ReplyDeleteDon't tase me, bro!
DeleteI wasn't shot but I did get caught by a girlfriend's father once back in the day. We were both 16 and thankfully, or unfortunately, he knew me and had discovered our super-secret plot. He was the welcoming committee whispering to me through her window in the complete darkness that "Everything is cool!". I thought it sounded like she had a little cold.
He showed greater restraint than I believe I ever could, but when I insisted on "trying to explain everything" after he had already escorted my to the front door (gently, by my collar) and told me, "Leave Now! We WILL discuss this later!" , I wasn't listening very well, so he finally told me that he was too angry to have a discussion at the moment and gave me a quick toss by my collar and belt in the back, introducing my chin to the sidewalk and I did a face plant. Nothing broke, but a nice "strawberry" on my chin.
Times were different back then, I guess. It took a long time--- several months, but I finally re-gained her parent's confidence and have been a family friend for years. I think her parents realized I had been "scared straight" and deserved a second chance under a watchful eye. Looking back, it would've been pretty hard for me to redeem myself if he had killed me. I'm glad there weren't all these bagger gun goons running around with weapons standing their ground in those days.
I am a Texan, and I am about 99% certain that the dad will be no-billed by the Harris County grand jury. It's a real shame for all concerned and a great sadness that an impetuous boy didn't have a chance to grow up and learn NOT to trespass into another man's home to be with his daughter by other means than killing him. It's a great sadness that the teenager did not get to live a full life, marry, have his own kids, become an old man, and then reminisce about his escapades back when he was young and foolish.
ReplyDeleteAnd the killer's children will forever be scarred by what their dad did that night. There's no telling how badly the girl will take it; she just might find the pain unbearable and eventually commit suicide from that all that trauma. Then the dad has two dead teenagers on his hands, due to his hasty actions. And what about his son.... the one who told the dad about the intruder? His life is scarred, too.
It's a terrible thing all-around. Nothing good comes from any of it. But it seems to me that the right to shoot an intruder trespassing in your home is pretty well established in Texas law. I'm betting "no-bill" on the dad.
Elsie
1) The kid was invited.
Delete2) Was the father enraged? Most likely.
3) Reaching for the proverbial weapon? from his most likely naked ass?
Kid knew himself invited, according to account above father did not.
DeleteConfusing story.
DeleteSo the girl denied inviting the boy in to save herself,
So the dad finds a stranger in his daughters bedroom that she says broke in? Was uninvited?
Then the dad and boy argue about what? The boy should have just apologized and gotten the hell out.
This just seems so strange.
But it also lends to a point I have always made about people being awoken in the middle of the night, frightened and bleary eyed, and they reach for their guns? Something you should only use when you have your full senses.
The girl may have invited the boy into the house, but she was not the legal adult responsible for the lease or ownership of the property. The boy was trespassing if he sneaked into the house to meet with the daughter without the parents' approval.
DeleteI've faced the same situation with an older boy, age 17, sneaking onto my property to meet my daughter in the middle of the night. I should have called the cops when I discovered them, but instead, called his parents and woke them up out of a dead sleep at their home, telling them quite angrily that their boy had sneaked onto our property to visit our 14-year old daughter.
We discussed things better in the light of the following day with the teenager and his dad, and the boy apologized for trespassing on our property to visit our daughter. At first, he used that old excuse that she invited him so he wasn't trespassing, but I informed him that any time he sneaks in, without permission, he's trespassing. Of course, our daughter caught hell from us over this too, and we learned a lot about parenting our particular teenager that night.
I repeat:
We parents are the owners of this property; it was not our young teenage daughter. Sneaking onto our property against our wishes is trespassing, regardless of our daughter's invitation that night.
Anon at 8:36 am. You handled the situation at your home correctly. Maybe by your standards, the boy was "trespassing" but it seems that the boy thought he had been invited by the daughter and probably had no idea that what mattered was an invitation from the father. In any case there is no justification for the boy's murder by the irate father. Had the father not had a gun handy, he might have reacted in a more mature and appropriate way. As it is now, a teenaged boy is dead, his girlfriend has to live with the effect of her lies, the girl's brother has to live with the effect of telling his dad, and the father has to live with the fact that he committed yet another senseless murder.
DeleteBeaglemom
So you think the murderer was right to do so? I don't see any other reason for you to tell this story snd emphasize so mush that the girl was not the owner of the property. In any case,it depends on where this happens. It may be true where you are, but in my neck of the woods children don't need legal permission from the landowner to invite a friend over.
DeleteAnd this year's "Parent of the Year" goes to...
ReplyDeleteThis isn't surprising anymore. How many things that we used to do and maybe end up with someone getting their butt kicked, now ends up with someone dead or wounded. Someone cut you off in traffic, you flipped them off, they returned it. Now you flip them off, they shoot at you.
ReplyDeleteI hope she's pregnant.
ReplyDelete8:16
DeleteWhy would you hope she's pregnant?
"I hope she's pregnant."
DeleteWhat a crass, ignorant thing to say. Like that young girl's life isn't already ruined now from watching her dad shoot and kill her friend? Damn.
This story speaks volumes about the relationship the girl had with her father.
ReplyDeleteShe obviously didn't respect him - she feared him. Even with her dad standing there, holding a gun - she stll lied to him. Why do kids / people lie? When you know that the truth will get you punished.
So, the boy was there, the daughter was there, the dad was there - holding a gun - and she lied. She lied because she was afraid what her dad would do to HER if she told the truth.
I'm sure she didn't think her dad would shoot the boy - but he did. And now, she gets to live with it forever. And dad? He'll probably walk because, "gun culture".
But I'd bet she thought that dear old dad would use that gun on her.
well put. We never had guns, we had discussions, our kids could ask us anything and we'd be honest with them and visa versa.
DeleteWell, if her father was that strict, of course she's going to be fearful. They could have a decent relaitonship still. All about feeling like a disappointment vs temporary happiness. THE main teenage dilemma.
DeleteWhen I was 16, I had dreams of buying my own house and creating my own life as most do. Doesn't mean I didn't have a bad parental relatioship. It meant I was independent and confident in my abilities and future.
This is another terrible story where a child's life is gone and the young girl's life will be ruined because of her actions. I can understand a parent being angry to find the boy in the bedroom especially if the girl said she didn't invite him or didn't know him. But the dad could have avoided shooting the kid. He could have waited for 911 to get there. He could have called the kid's parents.
ReplyDeleteWith the gun culture being what it is today, parents need to sit down and talk to their kids to make sure the kids' understand that they could be shot if they go into another person's house like this boy did, and then make their own kids' understand that if they sneak somebody into their own house, their friend's life could end.
This story is unbearable. I wish someone would compile a list of all these senseless killings due to guns. Guns and more guns....how in the hell does a civilized society in the year 2014 tolerate this? We are the laughing stock of the globe as well we should be. The NRA and all politicians they own are covered in the blood of innocents...mostly children. Shame on as...shame shame shame
ReplyDeleteAny mention of Skittles and Arizona Iced tea?
ReplyDelete(it's going to take a hundred years to undo the damage done by the ruthless gun industry and their mercenary lap dog lobbyists, careless elected officials and psychopathic Second Amendment absolutist citizenry.)
There's something terribly wrong with a society that punishes trespassers with the death penalty.
ReplyDeleteThe father should be drawn and quartered.
ReplyDeleteThe father should be put on trial, found guilty and sentenced to jail for the rest of his life. There are other ways he could have handled the situation and shooting the kid wasn't one of them!
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised that this guy hasn't killed before this. He sounds like a responsible gun owner accident just waiting to happen.
ReplyDeleteThe argument between the father and the boy may have been about the boy trying to escape the house before the police arrived. But a gun was not necessary. A call to the boy's parents would have been sufficient.
ReplyDeleteThe Judge, Jury and Executioner took the words of his most chaste totally honest to a fault 16 year old and the 17 year old boy paid the ultimate price. Dad was armed with a weapon that could (and did) kill. Why didn't Dad holster the gun and wait for the cops?
ReplyDeleteNo mention of "accident"? Something's not right here, usually they're called "Accidents" when someone gets killed.
I'm glad Daddy survived his panic attacks.
How Daddy, Immaculata, and her brother can live with themselves or each other after this is beyond me.
We raised three kids, and I could trust my daughters (yes, at sixteen years old). If she wanted to invite a friend or two on a night that wasn't followed by school, to talk, play scrabble, whatever, all she had to do was say "So and so's stopping in later, we're watching survivor in my room" I was fine with it. My son, not as much. Boy's frontal cortexes don't mature until they're in their early twenties and he needed more supervision, but I could trust him to an extent. If something's going to happen, it'll happen anywhere.
We never needed a gun nor instill fear while raising our kids. Maybe we were just lucky, but I doubt it, all their friends's parents were the same way.
I don't believe any of it...the family most likely made up this story...to justify his actions...he grabbed the weapon asap..when his son told him the boy was in her room..bottom line..think ppl...he would have had a chance to run out if the father had to go get the gun...duh...Think!
ReplyDeleteWith all of the investigations a police officer goes through whenever he pulls his gun from its holster, the investigation if he shoots, or kills a suspect, I don't understand why a police officer would want to be a police officer and not just a regular citizen who have more rights to shoot and kill whoever is annoying them.
ReplyDelete