14-Year Old Kills 5 Family Members After Learning Mom Wasn’t His Biological Parent

A 14-year-old boy in Alabama fatally shot five of his family members days after learning the woman that cared for him was not his biological parent, a family member told local media.

Daisy McCarty, the teen’s first cousin,  said the boy  learned about his stepmother last week, which McCarty thinks “triggered” him, WAFF-TV in Huntsville, Alabama, reported.

via USA Today:

The boy confessed killing his father, 38-year-old John Sisk; his stepmother, Mary Sisk, 35; his 6-year-old half brother; his 5-year-old half sister; and his 6-month-old half brother in their home in Elkmont, Alabama, Limestone County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Stephen Young told reporters Tuesday.

 McCarty told WAFF-TV he started acting out less than a year ago, burning animals alive and vandalizing his school.

“I think he’s been having problems. And everybody, I don’t know why everybody didn’t just see it,” McCarty said. “That’s what bothers me because they’d seen it, but they didn’t do anything about it really.”

Young said that the boy is facing five counts of juvenile murder, but “pending adjudication could face adult charges of multiple counts of murder and/or capital murder.”

The slayings rocked the quiet community of Elkmont, northwest of Huntsville and not far from the Alabama-Tennessee border.

“There are not enough words to convey the sense of loss this family is feeling at this time and there is little the rest of us can do to bring them comfort,” Elkton Mayor Tracy Compton said in a statement. “We pray as a community for healing in this unprecedented situation and know that together we will persevere and eventually overcome.”

The 14-year-old called 911 Monday evening, according to Young, and told deputies that he’d been in the basement when he heard gunshots upstairs. He said he ran out the front door, but gave very little other information to authorities, Young said.

Upon further investigation, discrepancies were found in the boy’s story and when police confronted him about the inconsistencies, he confessed shooting all five members of his family.

Three of the victims were confirmed dead at the home in Elkmont, Alabama, and two were airlifted in critical condition and later died, the Limestone County Sheriff’s office said in a tweet.

The suspect agreed to assist authorities in finding the gun which authorities described as a 9mm handgun. The weapon was recovered Tuesday morning on the side of the road.

Young told reporters that the gun was in the home “illegally.”

The boy is being held at a juvenile detention facility.

Guns are becoming too accessible to individuals.

More than 36,000 Americans are being killed by guns every year — about a third of them homicides — according to statistics compiled by the Giffords Law Center, an advocacy group.

Something has to be done.