this post was submitted on 18 Jan 2026

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264

US boy, 11, allegedly shoots father to death after Nintendo Switch taken away (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 2 months ago by HellsBelle@sh.itjust.works to c/news@lemmy.world

108 comments fedilink hide all child comments

An 11-year-old Pennsylvania boy allegedly shot his father to death after previously having his Nintendo Switch handheld gaming system taken away.

The boy is facing criminal homicide charges after a 13 January shooting at his family’s home in Duncannon Borough.

As put in court documents obtained and reported by WGAL News 8, the case illustrates how easily children can access guns in the US, where firearms are ubiquitous.

The victim was reportedly discovered in the bedroom he shared with his wife, which court documents say is connected to their son’s bedroom by a closet.

Police reported it was the child’s birthday, and he had entered the bedroom shouting: “Daddy’s dead.” Troopers at the scene also reportedly said that they heard the son tell his mother: “I killed Daddy.”

Police said the shooting occurred after the couple had gone to bed shortly past midnight. The child reportedly told authorities that he had had a good day with his parents, but the documents reportedly state that he became “mad” when his father told him it was time to go to bed.

According to the news outlet, the court document says that the boy told police he found a key to the gun safe in his father’s drawer in his parent’s bedroom. He reportedly unlocked it while attempting to locate his Nintendo Switch – which had previously been taken away from him – and found a gun.

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[–] Veedem@lemmy.world 110 points 2 months ago (3 children)

The son then allegedly admitted to “removing the gun from the safe, loading bullets into it and walking over to his father’s side of the bed”, according to the affidavit. “He pulled back the hammer and fired the gun at his father,” the affidavit adds.

When asked what he believed would happen when he fired the gun, the boy responded that he was “mad” and that he had “not thought about that”, according to investigators.

Jesus man. This is a horrific situation. That poor woman lost her husband and, effectively, her son in one night.

[–] Triumph@fedia.io 36 points 2 months ago (3 children)

The fact that the kid could easily get into the safe makes it no such thing.

[–] Asmodeus_Krang@infosec.pub 52 points 2 months ago (1 children)

He had to find the key first, which he did. Sounds like it was one of those Stack-On type of cabinets that aren't actually safes but are better than nothing. Plus this kid loaded the gun, he was on a mission.

[–] magic_smoke@lemmy.blahaj.zone 24 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Yeah no this is why if you own guns you should only buy combo safes, with at least one that has no key to keep the keys to the rest.

Calling a locksmith is better than calling a coroner.

Also, ffs, choose a good combo, keep it in a secure password manager. Not rocket science.

[–] arrow74@lemmy.zip 23 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Or just effectively hide your key. It's really not hard to keep a key hidden from a 11 year old.

My bet is it was somewhere dumb like in the same room above the door frame or in a drawer.

[–] HellsBelle@sh.itjust.works 26 points 2 months ago

... he found a key to the gun safe in his father’s drawer in his parent’s bedroom.

From the summary.

[–] magic_smoke@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 points 2 months ago

Oh for sure, but even with a good hiding place kids are shits and have a lotta time on their hands. ESPECIALLY after their preferred game/tablet/whatever has been taken away.

I'll take no chance over low chance.

[–] KoboldCoterie@pawb.social 12 points 2 months ago (2 children)

That makes it... not a horrific situation? What?

[–] chesshire@lemmy.world 32 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Makes the safe, not a safe.

[–] KoboldCoterie@pawb.social 9 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Well, that makes much more sense.

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[–] Triumph@fedia.io 5 points 2 months ago

Makes the safe no such thing.

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[–] BCsven@lemmy.ca 7 points 2 months ago (12 children)

Maybe something good can come out of it. The kid has serious issues which hopefully he gets intense therapy for, rather than not killing his dad and growing up being some psycho killer that terrorizes the general public.

[–] halcyoncmdr@piefed.social 54 points 2 months ago (2 children)

hopefully he gets intense therapy for

Oh he's going to be in the US prison system now. He will get next to zero mental health care provided.

[–] arrow74@lemmy.zip 12 points 2 months ago

Yep, 10 years old is the age in PA where a child can be charged with a crime. Placing him in the juvenile court/prison system. Under 10 and courts could only send him to a psychiatric facility.

He is still under the cutoff for where they could charge him as an adult (14).

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[–] Triasha@lemmy.world 6 points 2 months ago

The kid killed one of the only people that might have provided that care, and probably left the other in poverty.

The odds ain't good.

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[–] meejle@lemmy.world 49 points 2 months ago (25 children)

This must be the fault of violent video games

Not guns

Nope

[–] eli@lemmy.world 12 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Inb4 Trump bans the Nintendo Switch thinking it's a Glock switch

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

nintendo switches are quite big for his hands.

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[–] Thedogdrinkscoffee@lemmy.ca 44 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Talent like that can't go to waste. He'll be put in ICE's young achievers club where youth will be free to learn and grow at an advanced rate free from normal societies mores. He will practice high-performance psychopathy, bleeding edge unwarranted agression and advanced immunity from prosecution.

This boy has a bright future, as does America.

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[–] Randomgal@lemmy.ca 41 points 2 months ago

But don't worry bro all this tragedies are worth it because all the guns will protect America for tyranny... Wait, hold up...

[–] eestileib@lemmy.blahaj.zone 37 points 2 months ago

Charlie Kirk approved of that

[–] Cocodapuf@lemmy.world 30 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (6 children)

Yeah, my kid is way too unpredictable, there's is absolutely no way that I could ever have a firearm in my home or else this will be me or my wife, 100% certainty. We regularly get punched, kicked, bitten, etc almost daily. When he's angry (which is often) he just can't think, and then he regrets his actions later, but he does some dumb shit when he's angry...

[–] Jumbie@lemmy.zip 27 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Bro. You can’t just accept this. Get the kid in therapy before he becomes a horrible adult.

Harsh? Come on, man. Help the kid!

[–] Cocodapuf@lemmy.world 37 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (4 children)

We have more professionals involved than you'd believe. Trust me, we're working on it, but change is a slow road. You may have heard for instance that therapy only works if you want to change, well if a nine year old isn't mature enough to want to change or be willing to participate in the process, well that also slows things down.

At the risk of being blunt here, I'm not really looking for parenting advice, I'm actually pretty sure we're doing a decent job despite a particularly hard kid with some very real challenges.

But I do sincerely see that you mean well, and want to help, so thank you.

[–] Jumbie@lemmy.zip 19 points 2 months ago

Hey man, thanks for responding. I apologize for the unwanted judgment and I wish you and your kid the best.

Cheers.

[–] TheFonz@lemmy.world 7 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I have two boys with autism. Some of this resonates. Have you had him tested? I imagine you have but just in case. Good luck.

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[–] 87Six@lemmy.zip 14 points 2 months ago (3 children)

You sound like you're talking about a 50 year old alcoholic abuser that got 3 divorces and is now dirt poor because the women always won the lawsuits

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[–] wavebeam@lemmy.world 10 points 2 months ago (1 children)

My daughter has "reactive attachment disorder" and she can behave like this. She is adopted from a rough first few years of life and being in the foster system for a while before we took her and her older brother in.

Like you said below, as she gets older she is getting better at controlling impulses, but not 100% and so when she does get upset she is stronger and more dangerous. 2024-2025 school year was super rough for us. She went to the ER many times, as it was the only support we could utilize for the kind of violence she was exhibiting, and eventually we were able to get her into a child psych unit for a few weeks and then into residential treatment. It was tough; we had to push back on very judgemental hospital staff, drive am hour one-way for weeks to visit her in residential, call the governor's ombudsmen, and just generally do a ton of work to get her the help she needed.

At one point, the psych unit's family coordinator, who's job was basically to convince us to bring her back home after a week of them basically only sedating her asked if we were ready to bring her back home. And when we told her that we weren't because we expected her to rapidly move back to violent behaviors, she insisted we were going to have to, so I asked "and what if we don't?" She threatened to call DHS. So I leaned into the camera and said "great, let's do that then". I believe this to be the only reason we got a successful referral to residential treatment.

All of this was necessary treatment for my daughter. She is doing much better now. She has an IEP, which has placed her in an "emotional support classroom" and is on some good meds that are definitely helping. That said, she is still exhibiting violent behaviors from time to time. The trend is moving in the right direction, but she still has rough days.

So anyway, I encourage you to seek help with this. It can be VERY HARD. You may be forced to make tough decisions and push back against people who are very judgemental and even making scary threats about you being an abusive or neglectful parent. They do not know your child. They do not know you. They do not know your home life. You must do what is right to being peace and safety to your home, even with these challenges. Good luck. Please feel free to reach out with questions or a non-judgemental ear to bounce off of.

[–] Cocodapuf@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Wow, thank you for sharing all of that. I know you've been through a lot, as it turns out adoption is not an easy road. Yeah I'd say we're in the same boat here a lot of ways, we also adopted. He was 6 when he moved in with us, and he came with a lot of baggage. He apparently moved around the system a lot before he got to us, had a lot of different homes, and some of those were not good for him either.

So yeah, he definitely still has some problematic behaviors, he has not figured out how to be respectful to the people around him. But he's beginning to be able to actually talk about his emotions, at least a bit. And the violence is way down from where it was a couple years ago. And OH MY GOD it was amazing when we found a medication that actually helped him! I have a new appreciation for SSRIs (they never did much for our first kid, so I had my doubts). But when we started him on that, I honestly I feel like that week was the start of a new era, like all of a sudden he was actually able to hear what people around him were saying, rather than just hearing his own anxieties reflected back. (The next goal is to get him to care about what other people are saying *sigh*) But yeah, that was still a turning point, it felt like he started learning how to interact with people for the first time that week.

Anyway, I don't really like to get into all of this on the web, you really don't know how long things can live online and I don't want any of this to come back and embarrass him or anything. But yeah, thanks for reaching out I appreciate it more than I can express. And of course feel free to DM me any time if you want a non-judgmental ear too, I know how difficult and thankless this role can be.

Out of curiosity though, what state are you in? I know the state agencies that handle adoption can vary a lot from state to state and sometimes the services on offer to help out can be lacking. I think we are probably lucky to live in MA, I think the services available here are pretty good, even if DCF (dept of children and families) is currently a mess with budgets being slashed.

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[–] lavander@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Have you considered having him visit a therapist?

He may have unresolved emotions that would benefit him (and people around him) to come out.

Child therapists pretty much “play” with them so it’s something kids don’t get annoyed/bored (or even give them a lot of thoughts)

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[–] bigboismith@lemmy.world 24 points 2 months ago (1 children)

If just the father had his own gun to him, he could have had defended himself.

[–] njm1314@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago

We need more guns to be able to defend ourselves against children with guns. Write your Congressman today.

[–] apftwb@lemmy.world 21 points 2 months ago

Its always a tragedy. It feels simultaneously avoidable and inevitable. Its always a tragedy.

[–] WizardofFrobozz@lemmy.ca 19 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (10 children)

White 40something American with a goatee and a shaved head who keeps a gun next to his bed and is raising a violent kid?

Will withhold judgment on whether this is any big loss.

[–] jim@lemmy.org 6 points 2 months ago

You don’t fuck with Animal Crossing.

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[–] HellsBelle@sh.itjust.works 15 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Douglas and Jillian adopted Clayton in 2018, according to court documents. Stuckey told News 8 that he only met the 11-year-old at one point in-person when he was much younger, as he left the country for nearly a decade and does not travel back often.

Stuckey is in a graduate MBA program, and received a undergraduate degree in Psychology Clinical mental health from Southern New Hampshire University, and tells News 8 that Clayton has autism, which escalated in 2025.

Stuckey says, at Doug and Jill's request, he drafted a letter to the Susquenita School District asking to move Clayton to a behavioral education center, citing rising concerns about his behavior with fellow classmates.

"In the letter, I was speaking to the tune of the school violence that we're seeing and that some of these subtle behaviors could eventually lead to a situation," Stuckey said.

https://www.wgal.com/article/family-friend-11-year-old-accused-perry-county-death-autism-close-bond-family/70013984

[–] CircaV@lemmy.ca 6 points 2 months ago

Is America great again yet?

[–] pir8t0x@ani.social 6 points 2 months ago

What's this world turning into?!

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 6 points 2 months ago

11 year old boy who barely understands the consequences of his actions obviously has access to weapons and then shoots his dad....

This is extremely tragic but this obviously being the US, you can bet your ass that this little boy's life hasn't been ruined enough.

The government will jump on this, jail his ass as an adult because I don't know why they have laws for kids of they try all kids like adults anyways, and they'll make sure he'll be fucked for life.

The US is a shit hole third world banana republic

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