10-year-old shoots and kills mother over virtual reality headset

Jenny Goldsberry

December 01, 02:41 PM December 01, 02:41 PM

A 10-year-old boy is in a Wisconsin juvenile detention center on allegations he shot and killed his mother because he wanted a virtual reality headset.

Children's Court Judge Marshall B. Murray is holding the unidentified boy under a $50,000 bond on charges of first-degree reckless homicide. He is being charged as an adult, which is in accordance with state law when it comes to crimes of this degree.

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The boy admitted to police that he retrieved the gun from his mother's bedroom and shot her on accident on Nov. 21, according to the criminal complaint. His 26-year-old sister called the police and the next day more family members would alert officers that he didn't appear to show remorse and claimed to have shot her on purpose. They also discovered that the next day he used his mother's Amazon account to buy an Oculus Virtual Reality headset.

His family also reported to police that he has a violent past that included hurting the family's pet dog and setting the furniture on fire with a balloon he filled with explosive liquid. While the gun he eventually retrieved was in a lockbox, family members confirmed that the boy had the keys to it.

"This is an absolute family tragedy," the boy's lawyer, Angela Cunningham, told a local outlet. "I don’t think anybody would deny or disagree with that."

Milwaukee Police Department reported 194 murders in 2021, with the state reporting that over 91% of murders involved a firearm, according to the Wisconsin Department of Justice.