A teen who was arrested and later freed for shooting and killing his father in Oklahoma last year is now being charged with killing his mother in Florida, the police said Wednesday.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd told reporters that the 17-year-old was taken on suspicion of stabbing his mother to death on Sunday at his grandmother’s house in Auburndale, which is northeast of Tampa.
A no-contact order was broken and first-degree murder, kidnapping, and other charges were brought against the teen by the sheriff’s office. NBC News doesn’t usually name kids who are charged with crimes.
Judd said he wants the teen to be tried as an adult. It is not clear if he has a lawyer who can speak for him.
Before the alleged stabbing, the teen and his mother had a work fight two days before. He then ran away to his grandmother’s house in nearby Charlotte County, Judd said.
His mom went to Auburndale on Sunday. The boy called 911 around 6 p.m. to report that his mother had cut herself on a knife after a long fight, Judd said.
Judd said that when the officers arrived, the teen was “calm, cool, and collected” and asked to talk to a lawyer.
The local medical examiner said the teen’s story was not “reasonable or plausible,” Judd said. He also said that the 12-inch kitchen knife blade that was used in the alleged stabbing went all the way to the back of the mother’s neck.
Judd said that about an hour and a half before the teen called 911, neighbors said they saw the woman and her son fighting outside of the grandmother’s house. He said they saw the boy pull his mother inside by the hair.
He said that the grandma wasn’t home at that time.
Judd said that the police also found out that the boy said he shot and killed his father in self-defense on Valentine’s Day of last year in Lincoln County, Oklahoma. Judd said the teen said he shot because his father pulled out a knife and threatened him. There were no witnesses to the accident.
Judd said the man was shot twice, once in the head and once in the chest.
State and local police looked into the death and arrested the teen on suspicion of first-degree murder. But, Judd said, a month later, the local prosecutor’s office dropped the charges because it couldn’t prove the teen’s story.
The office of the district attorney in charge of the killing could not be reached for comment right away. A deputy district attorney with the office told the Tampa NBC station WFLA that self-defense was not impossible, so no charges were brought.
After being shot, the boy moved to Florida to live with his mother. She said he hit her in November, so he was arrested, Judd said. At the time, Judd said, she was punishing him by taking away his video game rights.
It was the teen’s grandma who saw the attack. “He pushed her to the ground and stomped on her,” he said.
It was said that the teen said he was protecting himself, but the grandma didn’t believe him. The sheriff’s office said he was arrested on suspicion of domestic violence battery.
It wasn’t clear right away how the case would end. The alleged assault happened in Charlotte County, but the sheriff’s office did not reply right away to a request for comment.