A makeshift memorial for a child killed by another child is seen at an apartment complex in Sacramento County, California. (KCRA)
SACRAMENTO — A 10-year-old Sacramento County boy has been arrested on suspicion of shooting to death another child with his father’s gun, authorities said.
Sacramento County sheriff’s deputies answered a shooting report at around 4:30 p.m. Saturday afternoon in Foothill Farms, an unincorporated Sacramento suburb. In a parking lot, they found a 10-year-old boy bleeding from the head and neck. Despite lifesaving measures, he was later pronounced dead at a hospital, the Sheriff’s Office said in a social media posting.
The boy was identified by coroner’s officials as Keith Frierson. He had left his apartment a short time before the shooting to ride his bicycle, a relative told KCRA-TV.
According to a Sheriff’s Office statement, another 10-year-old boy had gone out to his father’s truck to get him cigarettes and found a loaded gun. He took it and “bragged that his father had a gun,” a Sheriff’s Office statement said.
“He then proceeded to shoot the victim once and ran into a nearby apartment,” the post read.
Deputies ordered people in the building to come out. The 10-year-old was arrested on suspicion of murder and his father was arrested on suspicion of crimes including carrying a stolen, loaded firearm in a vehicle, child endangerment and being an accessory to a crime after the fact.
Authorities allege that he also tried to hide the gun by throwing it into a nearby trash can, where deputies found it.
The man remained jailed Tuesday on $500,000 bail. He was an ex-felon who was “legally prohibited from owning or possessing a firearm,” the Sheriff’s Office said, adding that the gun had been reported stolen in 2017.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether the man had an attorney who could speak on his behalf.
Originally published at The Associated Press