Murders by kids is becoming more commonplace. And it's not a coincidence. Violence in the media, especially in video games and movies are a major contributing factor. You see it everywhere. And often times the killer is turned into a celebrity. Young people are raised by a culture that glorifies guns. So it should be no surprise that murders by children are becoming more and more common. As with this story the consequences are crippling the criminal justice system:
A jail warden said Sunday he will ask a judge to move an 11-year-old boy accused of killing his father's pregnant girlfriend from an adult lockup to a juvenile detention center because the jail cannot accommodate the boy.
Lawrence County Warden Charles Adamo said his 300-inmate jail cannot offer proper long-term care for Jordan Brown, of Wampum, who was charged Saturday with using his own 20-gauge shotgun to kill 26-year-old Kenzie Marie Houk.
Houk was eight months pregnant with the child of Brown's father and also had two daughters, ages 4 and 7, who lived together in the rural home where authorities said she was slain as she lay in bed Friday.
The murder follows another shocking killing linked to a boy. On Thursday, a 9-year-old Arizona boy reached a plea deal with authorities who accused him of the fatal shootings of his father and his father's roommate. The boy pleaded guilty to negligent homicide in the death of his father's roommate while the murder charge in his father's death was dropped.
In Pennsylvania, police said after the killing Brown hopped onto a school bus with Houk's oldest daughter. State troopers picked him up at school after tree trimmers called emergency services when Houk's youngest daughter told them she thought her mother was dead.
State police said the boy exhibited "little, if any, emotion," according to Lawrence County District Attorney John Bongivengo.
"This is something that you wouldn't even think of in your worst nightmare," said Bongivengo.
Additionally, the shooting was in a cold blooded manner. Is the popular media training killers:
Pennsylvania State Police say that 11-year-old Jordan Brown shot Kenzie Marie Houk in the back of the head as she lay in bed and then hopped on a bus to school - as if it were just another day. Kenzie Marie Houk was pregnant and near to term with a baby boy. Her baby died immediately of Kenzie Marie Houk Allegedly Killed by 11-Year-Old Jordan Brown Date: February 20, 2009 Wampum, PA United States of America oxygen deprivation. Kenzie Marie Houk, who was 26, was the live-in girlfriend of Jordan Brown's father, Christopher Brown.
According to the Huffington Post, Jordan Brown initially told investigators that he saw a suspicious-looking black truck on the property, causing police to chase down a false lead for hours. When Jordan Brown's story kept changing, however, police began questioning Kenzie Maire Houk's 7-year-old daughter. Though she did not eyewitness the slaying of her mother, she says she saw Jordan Brown with a shotgun and heard a loud bang.
It was this key information that led police to take Jordan Brown into custody, charging him as an adult with the murder of Kenzie Marie Houk. Jordan Brown is also being charged with criminal homicide of an unborn child. Police say that the murder weapon was a 20-gauge youth model shotgun, which they found in Jordan Brown's room.
Should Jordan Brown be convicted of the above-noted homicides, he will join a growing list of kid killers. Just recently, in fact, a 9-year-old Arizona boy pleaded guilty to the murder of his 29-year-old father and his father's friend, 39-year-old Tim Romans. The boy, whose name has not been disclosed because of his age, pleaded guilty to one count of negligent homicide in juvenile court. The murder charge against his father was dropped in exchange for his guilty plea in the killing of Romans.
Update:
Just as I posted this article MSNBC analyst and former FBI criminal profiler, Clint Van Zandt, confirmed my argument by citing statistics on the amount of time children spend playing video games.
