A 13-year-old boy in Pennsylvania has been charged as an adult in the shooting death of his 9-year-old brother, according to the Chambersburg Public Opinion.
Brayden Leroy Wright told police he and his brother were in the living room of their Waynesboro home early Wednesday morning when he decided he wanted to play “cops and robbers,” so he took what he knew to be a loaded handgun from an unlocked compartment in the couch.
He told detectives his brother wasn’t listening to him and that made him angry, so he put the gun’s muzzle to the back of the 9-year-old’s head and shot him, the paper said.
Wright said he put the gun back in the couch compartment and called 911, saying his brother had been hurt and needed help. Waynesboro police found the boy bleeding from the head and in cardiac arrest. He was taken to Waynesboro Hospital, where he died.
The teen told detectives that he had “some knowledge” about handling firearms, saying he had done so at home without his parents knowledge. He said it was “practicing.” Wright also said his father had told him never to point a gun at another person.
The father told investigators he keeps two loaded 9mm handguns in the unlocked compartment in the couch for home protection.
Wright described the gun he used to shoot his brother as black and silver, which matched the Smith & Wesson SD-9VE gun police found in the compartment when they executed a search warrant.
Wright has a preliminary hearing Monday in Franklin County Central Court. He is being held in the county jail on charges of criminal homicide and aggravated assault after bond was denied, according to court documents.
Waynesboro is a small town just north of the line between Pennsylvania and Maryland and not far from the presidential retreat Camp David.
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