A 13-year-old boy deliberately shot and killed a 12-year-old girl outside a foster home in rural southwest Missouri where they both lived using a gun he had taken from the house, the local sheriff said Friday.
Officers tried to revive the girl, Teresa J. Potts, but she died Thursday evening near the town of Jasper, which is about 130 miles south of Kansas City, Jasper County Sheriff Randee Kaiser said.
Kaiser said the boy ran into the nearby woods after shooting the girl and he was arrested there. He is being held by the Jasper County Juvenile Office, Kaiser said at a news conference in nearby Carthage, adding that the boy is expected to be charged in the shooting soon. The sheriff's comments were reported by The Joplin Globe and Springfield, Mo. TV Station KY3.
"It was not a situation where they were playing. It does not appear to be a situation where it was an accident," Kaiser said.
The report goes on to say that the two children lived in the foster home, and that the father was home.
There was more than one weapon missing when the search of the home started but now all have been accounted for.
Currently there is no information of whether or not the boy took all of the weapons, how many times he shot the girl, or the nature of their relationship.
It is conceivable that they are both foster children unrelated to each other, biological siblings, or that one is a foster child and the other the father's biological child.
What the police seem to be saying is that the boy shot the girl intentionally with a weapon that he found unsecured within the home.
These incidents are happening with such frequency that it is becoming difficult to keep up.
And that may be one of the saddest things I have ever typed.
The time has come, or came long ago, to prosecute these "responsible" gun owners who do not keep the weapons secured. Yes, they will be grieving, but they are responsible for the tragedy. Poor foster child did not stand a chance in life. Taken from one abusive home, and placed in a dangerous environment such as this. Arrest the man of the house, send a messge to other irrisponsible gun freaks who think they need guns to be manly.
ReplyDeleteYep, agree!
DeleteI am so sick of these willfully negligent parents being treated as victims when their carelessness with their weapons results in a child's death. The courts and the media constantly emphasize how that 'poor parent' must live with the guilt of their complicity in addition to the grief they feel about losing their child.
DeleteI'm sorry to burst your sympathy bubble, folks, but IT'S THEIR OWN DAMN FAULT!!! They may have to live with the guilt of their child's death but at least THEY get to live! Their poor child doesn't have that opportunity because they couldn't be bothered to properly secure their guns.
Anyone who has a gun should be required by law to properly maintain and secure it, out of the reach of anyone else in the home, especially children. Of course, that also defeats the purpose of having a gun to defend yourself in the highly unlikely event that your home is invaded, but it's far more likely that the gun will be mishandled than your home will be invaded.
I think the cumulative total of these tragedies should be published daily. We react to mass shootings because of the numbers. This homicide of children by guns is worse than the bad guys with guns. Yes, the guns kill people because people are careless with them.
ReplyDeleteWe do need to know numbers, but the NRA and GOP have made it illegal for the CDC to track, report, or even acknowledge shootings. Plus doctors are not permitted to talk about gun safety with new parents. That is how evil these people are.
DeleteSally - Everyone knows that gun manufacturers' profits are far more important than children's lives. As long as it's not THEIR children's lives in danger.
DeleteJudging from the many incidents of loaded weapons that are easily accessible to these youngsters there appears to be an inordinate number of irresponsible gun owners out there. Sickening.
ReplyDeleteBy NRA reasoning, that little girl SHOULD HAVE HAD A GUN OF HER OWN!
ReplyDeleteAnd if the little girl didn't have her own loaded .38, then she deserves to die, and Jesus must love all this since he allows it to happen in the Christo Fascist states of 'murica
DeleteAnonymous comments I have seen on local Joplin websites claim these two children are siblings, and that this foster placement was with a family member.
ReplyDeleteUnless and until there are mitigating circumstances:
ReplyDelete1. There should be a strict law against firearms in foster homes - a federal law.
2. The boy should be charged as an adult, with murder.
3. The foster parents should be charge as accomplices in the murder.
4. Hold the top NRA honchos criminally responsible for EVERY gun death in the country.
This from someone who saved herself from home invaders, with a gun...
There had to be some kind of connection. Were they wearing the same color shirts? And what makes this case a "non accident"?
ReplyDelete