14-year-old Alabama teen confesses to shooting and killing five members of his family including his siblings, claim police
ELKMONT, ALABAMA: A 14-year-old has confessed to killing five of his family members who were fatally shot in the late hours of Sunday, September 1.
Limestone County Sheriff's Dept. spokesman Stephen Young told WAFF that deputies were called to a residence in Elkmont at around 1.15 am on Monday by a juvenile in the house who reported that he had heard shots ring out upstairs while he was down.
When deputies arrived at the scene, they found one adult and two juveniles dead, and another adult and juvenile with critical injuries.
The adult was flown to Huntsville Hospital, while the juvenile was transported to Children's Hospital in Birmingham for treatment, but despite the best efforts of doctors, the pair could not be saved. At around 3 am, Sheriff Mike Blakely confirmed that both surviving victims had succumbed to the injuries.
In a subsequent interview, the juvenile who called to report the shooting, a 14-year-old boy, confessed to shooting all five of the victims. Blakely said the victims were his father, step-mother, and his siblings.
The teen also assisted investigators in locating the murder weapon, a 9mm handgun, that he said he had tossed away nearby.
Police have not released the shooter's identity because of his juvenile status. They have also not revealed a motive for the gruesome murders. Ridge Road, the street on which the family's house was located, remained blocked by the sheriff's office as investigators combed the scene.
AL.com reported that the murders were the most recent in a string of mass slayings in the state over the past decade.
Five people, including a pregnant woman, were murdered in Citronelle in south Alabama in 2016. In 2012, five people were shot to death after a robbery in Birmingham's Ensley Highlands neighborhood.
In 2009, in what was the worst mass shooting in the state's history, 10 people were killed and six others injured after a gunman made a list of the employers "who had done him wrong" and went about targeting them.