A 13-year-old boy in Newburgh, New York, is facing charges of second-degree murder after, police say, he shot and killed an 11-year-old.
The shooting happened on Wednesday morning, the Newburgh Police Department said Friday.
Officers found the victim, whom they did not name, dead inside a house from a gunshot wound. Investigators found a gun afterward, and three juveniles of interest were taken into custody.
Police arrested the teenage suspect, whom they did not name and who is unrelated to the victim, on Wednesday night.
“It broke me. I was inconsolable. … Who would want to hurt an 11-year-old? He was the sweetest kid you’d ever want to meet. I know it’s cliche to say that he was a good kid, but he was a great kid,” Glenn Pugh, who owns a coffee shop down the street from where the victim was found, told New York City’s WCBS-TV.
The Newburgh Police Department didn’t say whether the suspect will be tried for second-degree murder as an adult.
In New York, suspects between 13 and 15 years old who are tried for “felony such as murder, manslaughter, assault, sexual assault, attempted murder or burglary,” can be tried as adults or their cases can be sent to family court as a “designated felony act” petition, according to the New York State Unified Court System website.
