10- year old accidentally kills mother before Christmas
A ten-year-old boy’s dream was to have virtual reality. After obsessing over it and seeing what seemed like everyone else playing them online, he wondered how cool it would be to own one. And he had a plan. He was going to ask Santa for one, just like in the movie A Christmas Story. just like when Ralphie really wanted that BB gun, the Red Ryder, and when all hope was lost, he ended up getting one for Christmas after all.
His mom however has been a single mom since Her son was a baby. She was currently working two jobs just to support them. They lived in a run-down neighborhood. She came home from work one night and the house was ransacked she had worked so hard this last little bit to put together everything she had in her savings to get her son one gift. With getting a bonus from work and working overtime she was able to get enough money to buy her son a Virtual Reality system that he has been wanting all year. Her son was a hard worker and never complained about his chores, got all A’s in his class quite a kid but a good kid.
Yet most years for Christmas all she was able to get him was things he needed like shoes and a new backpack. She knew he was going to be surprised. But this so happened that the day her house was broken into that they stole the Virtual reality system that she had scraped and saved for. She was devastated she had worked so hard to get him this gift. But at least she thought to herself at least he doesn’t know so he won’t be disappointed. She did indeed tell him that the gifts were stolen but she did not mention anything about the VR gaming set. Since then she bought a gun for protection just in case. She had never shot a gun before so she ended up going to a shooting range and learned how to use it for protection just in case she ever needed to.
Not knowing how she was going to even afford clothes this year for Christmas she was crying in her room. Her son came in and told his mom that it was okay that he had a plan and that it was going to be okay. She then asked what do you mean you have a plan? The boy ran to his room and ran back to show his mom that he wrote a letter to Santa to ask him to get him a VR headset and get his mom a nice Jewelry set as well. “Santa has never visited us before but I have been so good this year and I don’t think he will mind just this one Christmas if he comes to our house just once.”
His mom was heartbroken and crushed by the kindness of her son’s heart. His mom has never had the heart to tell him that Santa isn’t real, but she also doesn’t have the money to afford to ever get him anything. She guessed it was time she told him the truth. She tells The Boy that Santa is in all of us and that it is in what we do to help people and share the joy with them that is the true Santa that Santa the magical Santa isn’t real but the joy of being able to do kindness for others is very real.
The boy turned very pale and started to hyperventilate. “What do you mean Santa isn’t real?” He screamed, ” That was our only hope to have our one chance at having a good Christmas, and now that is gone!” His mom tried to comfort her son to tell him they will get through this and they are going to be okay. “I want to kill those robbers.” He screamed; he saw the gun on his mom’s nightstand, and he grabbed it from her. He fought back and forth with the gun in hand, trying desperately to get it away from him. And then the gun went off. His mom collapsed to the floor with a gunshot wound in her stomach, and she started convulsing and foaming at the mouth. He backs away and just starts screaming “MOOOOOMMMMYYYYY” “HELP MOMMY SOMEONE HELP”
Neighbors heard the commotion and called 911 by the time the cops got there his mom was pronounced dead at the scene. The boy was charged as an adult last month with alternate counts of first-degree intentional homicide or first-degree reckless homicide.
Wisconsin law requires children as young as 10 to be charged as adults for certain serious crimes, though the boy’s attorneys can seek to move the case to juvenile court. The boy, who family members said has mental health issues, is being held in juvenile detention.
The prosecutor in the case asked the judge to require the boy to be released into the custody of a family member should he post bail. The judge did not impose that restriction.
The boy mostly kept his head down during the hearing. The judge ordered that he not be placed in shackles or any other kind of restraint and forbade the media from publishing any personal information about him, including his image and address.