An 8-year-old boy intentionally killed a 90-year-old woman when he shot her in the head inside a Louisiana mobile home after playing a violent video game, police said.
But the child won’t be charged with a crime.
The boy fatally shot his elderly caregiver, Marie Smothers, after playing “Grand Theft Auto IV” — a video game critics often blame for promoting violence — inside the mobile home at a Slaughter, La., trailer park Thursday evening, police said.
Smothers was sitting in a chair and watching television when the unidentified boy fired one round into the back of her head, the East Feliciana Parish Sheriff’s Office said.
The boy was taken into custody at the scene, but later released to his parents, because Louisiana state law prevents children under 10 from being charged with a crime.
“You have a child that does not know the impact or the consequences of the act that he has committed,” Sclynski Legier, an attorney, told WAFB-TV. “He truly doesn’t understand that.”
The child initially told investigators that he accidentally shot Smothers while playing with the loaded pistol. But police later determined the elderly woman was targeted.
Cops didn’t reveal a motive for the killing, but said that the boy was close to the woman he allegedly shot.
“By accounts of relatives of the victim, as well as friends of the family, the victim and the juvenile had a normal, loving relationship,” police officials said in a statement to The Advocate.
Investigators found that the boy had just finished playing the video game that police called “a realistic game that has been associated with encouraging violence and awards points to players for killing people.”
The boy’s father told WAFB-TV that his son used the elderly woman’s .38-caliber pistol to commit the murder. Although the child dodged criminal charges, he still faces penalties under the juvenile system, officials said.
Using a mobile device? Click here for video