Authorities in Utah are figuring out what to do after a 9-year-old boy shot his father in the back of the head and then assaulted him with a hatchet last month.
The 31-year-old father was taken to the hospital and passed away later.
Newly released police papers, including a frantic 911 call, give new information on what unfolded on February 16 in Tooele. According to the documents, the man and his son lived in the house with two other adults and four additional children, all under 11. KUTV reported.
“The victim and his son went to bed early due to behavioral issues and went into the bedroom that they share,” a detective wrote in a warrant that names the 9-year-old as a suspect in the father’s murder.
“The victim’s son later came out of the room and said that his dad was bleeding from the head and was dead,” the detective added.
The document did not describe the “behavioral issues” that caused the dad and child to go to bed early, but both current and former roommates of the father told police about some of the child’s behaviors, which one of the current roommates described as “typical child behaviors” like bringing a knife to the park, telling inappropriate jokes, and not doing chores.
A previous roommate told police that the boy “choked her when they were playing on the trampoline” and “another time when [the boy] was caught lighting things on fire in the basement.”
“The biggest concern,” the papers said, ” … was when they found that one of their dogs had been stabbed.”
The father was described as having a “rough” parenting style without “very much nurturing.”
On the night of the shooting, one of the adult roommates called 911 and told dispatchers the man was “bleeding severely from his head, his ears, and his mouth. He is in a pool of blood in his bed,” according to KSTU.
The woman said she didn’t now what happened, that “his son came in her to check on him, he works graveyard, and he’s in a pool of blood.”
When officers arrived, they determined he had been shot in the back of the head and had been struck with a sharp weapon. The officers confiscated a gun and a tomahawk at the scene. When they spoke with the 9-year-old, he told officers he “heard a loud bang and looked up to see his dad bleeding.”
The papers said that there was more to the story, however. A doctor said the wounds were not self-inflicted.
“Some were to the back of the head and there were fresh and bleeding cuts to the side, fingers and arm, which the doctor said appeared to be defensive wounds,” the documents say.
The child was arrested, although no information has been released because of his age.
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