MalloryKeaton

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/news/sta...e_momshot.html

Teen Accused Of Fatally Shooting Mom For Grounding Her
By The Associated Press
(10/11/04 - DALLAS, TX) — A 12-year-old girl upset over being grounded is accused of shooting her mother to death early Sunday in her bed.

The girl's 10-year-old brother called police about 1 a.m. after finding his mother, 48-year-old Elvira Marion Walton, shot.
The 12-year-old who was being detained at the Henry Wade Juvenile Justice Center.

"Apparently the motive is because the daughter was upset that the mother disciplined her," Dallas police Sgt. Gary Kirkpatrick, homicide unit supervisor, said in Monday editions of The Dallas Morning News.

Walton had six children and lived in a converted garage used as the family home. An older daughter, 22-year-old Thanica Derrick, said her mother had been having trouble with the 12-year-old.

"She is your average 12-year-old, hormones and everything," Derrick said. "There's nothing that bad to make her do that to my mama. She had been breaking out of the house and not going to school."

Neighbor Lashonda Washington said the 12-year-old regularly stayed out late with neighborhood boys.

"She was always down the street," Washington said. "Her mom was always going down the street at night, telling her it was time to come home."

Derrick is taking care of her 10-year-old half-brother.

(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

LittleMilkJug

My daughter is 12, and yes, she can grumpy but she dosen't go out at night, period.

pacifierrocks

she's your average 12 year old? i don't think so. i was twelve. i've been grounded. my parents remain bullet free.

goodnightboy

I think it sucks being a parent today.

Though that was really too far.

-Kelly-

Stupid girl.

mh67511

I don't understand kids these days. I really don't. Sounds to me like there is a lack of discipline, which leads to trouble. 12 year olds should not be outside late at night.

And where did she get the gun from? That's what I don't understand...where in the world do they get the weapons from!

The Daywalker

Well, sounds like she's a hoodrat skank and so one of the people she hangs out with at night probably slipped her the gun.

Welcome to America.

Quarterley

I think by "average", he meant the girl's hate for her mom, not the shooting and the whoring. I hated my mom the most when I was 12 too.

migamoo

There is really something wrong with children these days and I personally blame the parents. Granted, it's not always the parents' fault, but a lot of the times it is.

fetch

I don't even live in America anymore, but I heard it's pretty easy getting a gun there. Heck, I could get a gun here, and this is just a rip-off of America.

Maresa

I heard this story when it happened (I live in Dallas) and I nearly kicked my television in.

It was the headlining story, followed by about four or five other top stories, all of which involved murders, guns, and children.


*screams*

What the hell is this world coming to?



My major question in this case is where did a 12 year old girl get the IDEA to shoot her mother?

"Oh, Mom grounded me, so I think I'll KILL HER!"


Actually, my mother told me that she heard that this girl had been planning it for some time. She was, apparently, just waiting for her mother to do something to justify her actions.



I don't know that we can fully blame the mother, though. Yes, she shouldn't have let her daughter out at night, but the article also says that her daughter snuck out. Also, the mother had six children. It's possible the daughter was rebelling in the first place for attention or something psychological like that (I'm not very knowledgable with that sort of thing).

They were living in a converted garage, so I'm assuming they were probably living in very bad conditions, and I would like to know how many jobs the mother was working. Also, where's the girl's father? He's not mentioned. Perhaps he's dead, or maybe he abandoned his family, so she's trying to keep everything together.



While I agree that parents need to be held responsible for their children, I think that sometimes with circumstances, it's a bit harder. I don't think this is a case of a parent allowing their child to get access to a gun; I think this is a case of a parent getting so caught up with everything that she couldn't watch her troublesome daughter who had been sneaking out and skipping school twenty-four hours a day.

Lexis

Yet another argument for tighter gun control. How the hell did a 12 year old girl get hold of a gun?

So very sad - now the poor woman's other children have lost their mother and the girl herself will be screwed up for life.

JW77

Very sad story.

Tighter gun control doesn't stop criminals from getting guns. Trust me, I know...unfortunately.

Lexis

A 12 year old girl is not a criminal. She is a child.

I live in the UK where -in the wake of Dunblane when some monster massacred little children at their school - we have introduced far stricter gun controls and proportionally, we have far less gun crime than the US. So obviously, we must be doing something right.

Trust me I know - I come from a family of police officers.

JW77

I feel sorry for her, I do. But isn't murder a criminal action?

You're right, you are doing something right. Does that mean that it must be gun control? No, of course not. Just look at the crime rate (especially homicides) in Washington DC...it's extremely high. And that's in an area of the US where gun controls were very strict...up until recently anyway.

Well, I'm from the United States, and unfortunately I come from a family of criminals. Now, I hate that fact, but I can honestly say I know that strict gun laws do not stop criminals from getting guns.