Tennessee Boy Shoots 8-Year-Old Girl Dead over Puppy
An 11-year-old boy in Tennessee shot dead his eight-year-old neighbor after she refused to show him her puppy.
McKayla Dyer, 8, was playing outside their home in Tennessee, U.S. on Saturday evening when their 11-year-old neighbor came and asked to see the little dog. Latasha Dyer said her daughter said no to the boy and was later on fatally shot in her chest, according to Times Live (TL).
In an interview with WATE 6, Dyer said the boy had been bullying her daughter from the time they first came to White Pine. She said the boy always made fun of McKayla and called her names. He stopped being mean one time when she told the school principal about it. But his next move came as a shocker to everyone, the report details.
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During a press conference, Jefferson County Sheriff G.W. McCoig said the little boy took his dad's single-shot 12 gauge shotgun from an unlocked closet, leaned out of their window, and shot McKayla. The incident occurred on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. The girl was still alive when police found her, but was pronounced dead when she arrived at the hospital, the Latin American Herald Tribune reports.
The boy has already been charged with first degree murder and has been taken to a juvenile detention center, where he will stay until the first hearing of the trial on Oct. 28, the report adds.
The girl's mother was overcome with a wave of emotion during the interview in front of her mobile home. She said she longs to hold her daughter once again in her arms but knows that it will never happen again.
"I want her back in my arms, this is not fair, hold and kiss your babies every night because you're never promised the next day with them," TL quotes Dyer's statement to WATE 6. "I hope the little boy learned his lesson because he took my baby's life — and I can't get her back."
While McCoig did not release other details about the Tennessee shooting, he said they are trying to protect the five other children in the boy's home and the two other kids in the Dyer's home from the effects of the tragic event.
