In 2022, a 44-year-old woman in Milwaukee was shot to death by her 10-year-old son because she failed to buy a virtual reality headset for him. That woman was Quiana Mann.
The Beginning
Early in the morning on November 21, 2022, Quiana Mann who lived at block 7400 of North 87th Street in Milwaukee, woke up his son from sleep. The child who was unnamed because of his age had a grudge against his mother because she had refused to buy him a $500 Oculus Virtual Reality headset.
The boy woke up and looked for the key to his mother’s locked gun safe. He took the gun out of the bedroom and went down to the basement where Mann was doing her laundry, and shot her at a very close range. The bullet entered her right eye and exited from the back of her skull.
Following the shooting, he tried to hide the gun before waking up his 26-year-old elder sister to tell her that their mother was dead. The sister woke up to call 911.
To make matters worse, the boy who showed no remorse for his actions logged into his dead mother’s Amazon account and then used her credit card to buy the device.
The child initially told investigators that his intention was only to scare his mother and not to kill her. According to him, he had pointed the gun at his mother and intended to shoot the wall to scare her, but she walked in front of him as he fired.
However, in a later interview, he admitted to having carried out the act intentionally. He made it clear that he was angry with her for not allowing him to buy something from Amazon, something he really wanted to get. Additionally, the boy stated he was mad that morning because his mother had woken him up by 6 a.m. when he was used to waking up by 6.30 a.m.
Aftermaths
The boy was charged as an adult with first-degree intentional homicide.
The court invited two psychologists to examine the boy. After listening to the reports of the psychologists, Milwaukee County Circuit Judge, Jane Carroll, found him competent to understand court proceedings. The judge declared that the boy demonstrated an ability to learn and that the psychologists made no serious mental diagnosis.
‘He knew his case was in adult court, he knew that his case was a felony, he knew that there were two types of cases — felonies and misdemeanors, he knew it was serious.’ Milwaukee County prosecutor Sara Waldschmidt said in court.
Even though the state law in Wisconsin requires children as young as 10 to be charged as adults in cases of serious crimes like homicides, some activities advocated that this case be moved to a juvenile court.
Quiana Mann’s mother, Lueritta Mann had expressed her shock. She believes her grandson should pay for what he did. “I can’t believe he did it”
Rhoda Reid, the boy’s aunt also expressed her frustration with the situation stating she never believed the boy was capable of such violence. She also believes the boy should pay for the crime he had committed.
Credits: New York Post