PA - Connor Wolfe 5, shot/killed by 13YO brother (charged as adult), parents charged, Nov 2021

[passionflower]

Arrest warrant issued for parents of teen accused of shooting, killing sibling
Arrest warrant issued for parents of teen accused of shooting, killing sibling

 

[everybodhi]

Arrest warrant issued for parents of teen accused of shooting, killing sibling
Arrest warrant issued for parents of teen accused of shooting, killing sibling

This is a rare charge especially considering like most states, there is no law in PA that one must lock up their guns from children.
It will be interesting to see how this goes.

What are Pennsylvania's gun laws?

CHILD ACCESS PREVENTION

This category of laws are intended to protect children from accessing firearms. They deal with safety locks, or hold gun owners liable for negligent gun storage.

The State Firearms Project has identified 11 such laws nationally, but just one is in effect in Pennsylvania. It is:

• A requirement that handguns sold through dealers have a safety lock.

 

[al66pine]

Child Access Prevention

...no law in PA that one must lock up their guns from children.What are Pennsylvania's gun laws? CHILD ACCESS PREVENTION This category of laws are intended to protect children from accessing firearms....

@everybodhi sbm Thanks for your post w link prompting me to read further re CAP laws which vary widely among the states.
As you said, PA requires firearm dealer to provide a gun lock w gun sale but has no PA specific statute re CAP. From a different source, some CAP laws in other states impose:
Criminal Liability re Firearm Storage*
--- "Negligent Storage of a Firearm ... where minors could or do gain access to the firearm. Typically, these laws apply whenever the person “knows or reasonably should know” that a child is likely to gain access to the firearm.
--- "When a Child “May” or “Is Likely To” Gain Access to the Firearm"
--- "Allowing a Child to Gain Access to the Firearm, Regardless of Whether the Child Uses the Firearm or Causes Injury"
--- "Only if the Child Uses or Carries the Firearm
Some state statutes: Minors "cause death or serious injury."
Some states: "minor takes the firearm to a public place, and/or uses the firearm in a threatening manner. "
Some states:" ... child uses the firearm in the commission of a crime."
"Negligent Storage of Unloaded Firearms"
Some states: same crim liability, even w unloaded guns.
"Intentionally, Knowingly, and/or Recklessly Providing Firearms to Minors"
State CAP laws also differ on the definition of “minor.”

Interesting that prosecutor is bringing crim charges against parents, even without a CAP statute in PA. imo. my2ct
________________________________
* Child Access Prevention | Giffords

 

[al66pine]

Criminal Complaint
Per link* court doc's show:
Loaded 9mm gun was sitting on top of gun safe in a bedroom kids were playing in, w parents in other part of house.
Thinking safety was on, 13-year-old boy aimed at, fatally shot 5 y/o brother.
Father admitted his loaded gun was left out on top of a gun safe, in same bedroom the children were playing in. Mother said she was aware gun was loaded & out of safe.
LE said that in processing scene, they found multiple gun safes in different locations around the home.

So were kids in parents' bedroom? Parents were elsewhere in house.
Father had left loaded gun out, w a round in chamber?
Four kids: one = 5 y/o, one = 13 y/o, others' ages unknown.

So tragic, so preventable.
Criminal charges against parents seem appropriate imo.
_______________________________
* Arrest warrant issued for parents of teen accused of shooting, killing sibling

 

[katydid23]

Criminal Complaint
Per link* court doc's show:
Loaded 9mm gun was sitting on top of gun safe in a bedroom kids were playing in, w parents in other part of house.
Thinking safety was on, 13-year-old boy aimed at, fatally shot 5 y/o brother.
Father admitted his loaded gun was left out on top of a gun safe, in same bedroom the children were playing in. Mother said she was aware gun was loaded & out of safe.
LE said that in processing scene, they found multiple gun safes in different locations around the home.

So were kids in parents' bedroom? Parents were elsewhere in house.
Father had left loaded gun out, w a round in chamber?
Four kids: one = 5 y/o, one = 13 y/o, others' ages unknown.

So tragic, so preventable.
Criminal charges against parents seem appropriate imo.
_______________________________
* Arrest warrant issued for parents of teen accused of shooting, killing sibling

I agree with the arrest warrant. That is criminal negligence, imo. Both parents knew the gun was loaded, left on top of the gun safe, accessible to young children, who they knew were playing in their bedroom. Why , why why and why, to all of those facts.

 

[everybodhi]

Criminal Complaint
Per link* court doc's show:
Loaded 9mm gun was sitting on top of gun safe in a bedroom kids were playing in, w parents in other part of house.
Thinking safety was on, 13-year-old boy aimed at, fatally shot 5 y/o brother.
Father admitted his loaded gun was left out on top of a gun safe, in same bedroom the children were playing in. Mother said she was aware gun was loaded & out of safe.
LE said that in processing scene, they found multiple gun safes in different locations around the home.

So were kids in parents' bedroom? Parents were elsewhere in house.
Father had left loaded gun out, w a round in chamber?
Four kids: one = 5 y/o, one = 13 y/o, others' ages unknown.

So tragic, so preventable.
Criminal charges against parents seem appropriate imo.
_______________________________
* Arrest warrant issued for parents of teen accused of shooting, killing sibling

Their charge is “Endangering the Welfare of a Child” which can get them 5 years and a $10,000 fine, at worst, but I think they will plea bargain to a lessor fine, probation, and court ordered counseling with no trial.
I doubt prosecutors really want to take this before a local PA jury. These kinds of incidents are rarely charged because there is a consensus among much of the public that the parents of a dead child killed by an unsecured gun will suffer enough from the grief and guilt they will live with the rest of their lives.
If I were them, my biggest worry would be CPS stepping in and taking my kids away.
Pennsylvania Statutes Title 18 Pa.C.S.A. Crimes and Offenses § 4304 | FindLaw

 

[passionflower]

Actionnews 4 said lots of guns most loaded. Dad always carried and his gun was on the bed table loaded. Had trigger locks most not used. Gun safe too. Trying to get link over

 

[passionflower]

Penn Hills parents charged after 5-year-old son shot by brother

 

[al66pine]

Amping up the Crim Charges?

...“Endangering the Welfare of a Child” which can get them 5 years and a $10,000 fine, at worst, but I think they will plea bargain to a lessor fine, probation, and court ordered counseling with no trial....Pennsylvania Statutes Title 18 Pa.C.S.A. Crimes and Offenses § 4304 | FindLaw

@everybodhi sbm Thanks for your post w link. Agreeing that ^ is a likely outcome.
OTOH.
If there is only a single EW/C* count against each parent atm, are multiple counts possible? Father's one act of leaving loaded 9mm gun, w round in chamber, on top of the gun safe endangered four children. Ditto Mother, neglecting to take corrective action, while gun sat out "for nearly two days."

(b)(1) Grading.--**
(i) plain EW/C = misdemeanor, first degree.
In some circumstances, EW/C is higher offense.
(ii) If actor "engaged in a course of conduct" of EW/C, = felony, 3rd degree.
(iii) If actor "created a substantial risk of death or serious bodily injury" = felony, 3rd degree.
(iv) If both (ii) & (iii) factors = felony, 2nd degree.
(b)(2) Grading of EW/C chg "shall be" increased by one grade if the child is < 6 y/o.

My interp:
Iiuc, if younger-than-6 is the only enhancement factor, this could up the charge to Felony 3rd degree from Misdemeanor, 1st degree.

Iiuc, if younger-than-6 plus the other enhancers ("course of conduct" and "created a substantial risk of death or serious bodily injury"), Father and/or Mother potentially face Felony, 1st degree.
my2ct.
_______________
* EW/C and grading Pennsylvania Statutes Title 18 Pa.C.S.A. Crimes and Offenses § 4304 | FindLaw

** PA statute, Title 18, 106, (b) Classification of crimes
(3) Felony, 2nd degree = prison up to 10 yrs.
(4) Felony, 3rd degree = prison up to 7 yrs.
(6) Misdemeanor, 1st degree = prison up to 5 years.
^ Title 18

 

[worm]

This is tragic but gun owners need to be responsible for the lethal weapons they posses. Leaving them within the grasp of children isn’t even close to proper.

 

[everybodhi]

This is tragic but gun owners need to be responsible for the lethal weapons they posses. Leaving them within the grasp of children isn’t even close to proper.

I agree. I wish these cases were always prosecuted to the fullest extent, the threat of a few years in prison may make gun owning parents more serious about preventing these tragedies which happen far too often imo.
One would think protecting your children from dying would be enough inspiration for a parent to lock up their guns, but apparently it’s not.
What the heck was going on with that guy to make him so paranoid that he felt he needed loaded guns assessable inside his house anyway?

 

[Reasonable & Just]

Mental illness, neglect and abuse in the home, maybe? No electricity upstairs, and a 13-year-old volatile enough to point a gun at little brother. I wonder if they taught the kids anything about firearm safety with all those guns around, though that's never a guarantee that kids won't play with the weapons anyway.

 

[ChatteringBirds]

I hope the remaining children are in safer home(s) now. These parents aren't safe. Poor kids, all of them.

 

[worm]

Mental illness, neglect and abuse in the home, maybe? No electricity upstairs, and a 13-year-old volatile enough to point a gun at little brother. I wonder if they taught the kids anything about firearm safety with all those guns around, though that's never a guarantee that kids won't play with the weapons anyway.

I’m not thinking the 13 year old committed a crime but should have known better. By that age I had already been thru the NRA safety course and had been taught by a dad who would have beat me senseless for mishandling a gun.

 

[realanastasia]

IMO the fact that the 13-year old thought it was perfectly acceptable to try to intimidate his rowdy younger siblings into behaving by brandishing a gun, pointing it at them, and pulling the trigger (thinking the safety was engaged, which tragically it was not) suggests either that he has a dangerously short temper and/or that he might’ve seen similar behavior modeled at home (I know that there are also examples of this kind of behavior in all forms of mass media/pop culture, and no doubt he would’ve seen it there…but lots of kids are likewise exposed to it who do NOT then try to take the same actions in real life). Strictly IMO but I do wonder about the parenting strategies used in this household.

 

[al66pine]

After a gunowner put a loaded gun atop, not in, his home gun safe, his son picks it up, fatally shooting his little brother. LE "found multiple gun safes in different locations around the home" and multiple trigger locks inside.

Sad, sad, sad.

The Ultimate Irony?

 

[azure]

Mental illness, neglect and abuse in the home, maybe? No electricity upstairs, and a 13-year-old volatile enough to point a gun at little brother. I wonder if they taught the kids anything about firearm safety with all those guns around, though that's never a guarantee that kids won't play with the weapons anyway.

Where do you see no electricity upstairs? Haven't been able to find that in MSM.

 

[al66pine]

Mental illness, neglect and abuse in the home, maybe? No electricity upstairs,...

@Reasonable & Just Thanks for your post.
I missed the point about no electricity upstairs. Link, pls. Anyone?

@azure You too? Great minds, thinking alike?

 

[Reasonable & Just]

Where do you see no electricity upstairs? Haven't been able to find that in MSM.

@Reasonable & Just Thanks for your post.
I missed the point about no electricity upstairs. Link, pls. Anyone?

@azure You too? Great minds, thinking alike?

Parents charged after 13-year-old shoots 5-year-old brother to death

Gerwig [Sarah, the children's mother] said all four of their children were staying in a first floor bedroom because the electricity had stopped working on the second floor. The gun was on the first floor.

 

[Reasonable & Just]

Just want to add that things go wrong with houses all the time, and it's expensive and hard to find people to fix them these days. I'm not implying that being poor is a crime or neglectful, but I do wonder if all those unsecured guns and possible paranoia might have been a factor in not doing repairs. Or maybe it was just another straw on the camel's back in the chaos they were living in.