A 10-year-old boy has been charged as an adult after shooting and killing his mother in Milwaukee, per TMJ4 News.
On November 21, Wisconsin 44-year-old Quiana Mann was killed when her 10-year-old son shot her, apparently in a dispute over a virtual reality headset. While the case is tragic, a strange feature of Wisconsin law is making a terrible situation even worse.
In the state, children as young as 10 charged with certain serious crimes must be charged as adults. This means that Mann’s son—at only 10 years old—was charged as an adult in his mother’s killing.
According to NBC News, the 10-year-old whose name has been withheld from the media was charged with first-degree reckless homicide in Mann’s death. If convinced, the boy faces up to 60 years in prison—notably six times greater than his current age.
The day after the murder, the child used his mother’s Amazon account to purchase the VR headset he wanted. He purchased the Oculus VR headset which costs between $130 and $500. He later told his grandmother that he was “sorry” for killing his mother. But the main thing he wanted from his grandma was to know where the Amazon package was.
After the shooting, the child initially told police he’d shot his mom accidentally, per the complaint. He was allowed to stay home with his family at that point. However, the next day, relatives called the police with concerns about whether the 10-year-old was telling the truth. According to the complaint, he allegedly later told his aunt he had “actually [been] aiming the gun at his mother.”
Family members told detectives the child experienced “rage issues” his whole life, the complaint says. At four years old, the boy allegedly held his puppy by the tail and whirled him around until the dog “whined and howled in pain.” He also allegedly started a fire in the home by filling a balloon with a flammable liquid and setting it aflame, per the complaint.
A family member also told investigators the little boy “has five different imaginary people that talk to him.” These imaginary people are described as two sisters, an old lady, and two men, the complaint states.
The boy recently received a “concerning diagnosis” from a therapist, leading Mann to place cameras around the home, the complaint says, according to documents from a therapist. Unfortunately, someone unplugged the cameras before the shooting.
“He’s always said that he hears voices,” the child’s grandmother, Lueritha Mann, said. “We tried helping her with him,” Lueritha also told the Beast. “All of us, everybody that knows her, even her church people. We all tried helping her with him because we knew he had a mental illness.”
The boy’s attorney, Angela Cunningham, called the murder an “absolute family tragedy.” She added that she “didn’t think anybody would deny or disagree with that.” However, she does not feel that the Wisconsin criminal justice system is prepared or “equipped to address the needs of a ten-year-old child.”
Watch the video report below for more details: