#7
Another case while I was still green as a gourd. I received a call of an accidental shooting in a home well out in the county. When I arrived I found a man lying face down by the dining room table with a small hole in his back. The other occupants of the house were his wife and his two sons, a 12 year old and a 14 year old and an 8 year old daughter.

The kids told me that they were in their bedroom which was next to the dining room and that they had dropped their 22 rifle and it had gone off striking their father in the back. I looked the rifle over and could see no way this could have happened that way. I had just enough sense to leave everything alone and call the sheriff. The sheriff contacted the Texas ranger that worked our area they were soon there. The policy of the sheriff was that who ever got the call was in charge of the case so it was my case but I knew enough to keep out of the way.

A couple of days later I was notified by the parent of a classmate of the boys that the boys had admitted to shooting their father and than offered their friend five dollars not to tell. I drove out to the scene of the shooting where the sheriff and the ranger were still working and informed them of this. To make a long story short the boys were brought in and the ranger sat them down and got the true story from them. It seems like both boys wanted to do the deed so one aimed the rifle while the other one pulled the trigger. They also intended to kill their mother and take their little sister with them to wherever they thought they were going to go. Their father was strict but not abusive but both boys hated him anyway. Nether boy ever expressed any remorse, only saying they were glad he was dead.