I don’t know if any of you have seen or heard this news story out of St. Johns, AZ, but a few days ago an eight year old boy was arrested and charged with a double homicide.  He is accused of shooting his father and another male that was in the house.  The local police got a confession and if anyone has watched CNN then you may have seen it.  As a 10 year veteran police officer I am here to tell you that the whole situation is one big cluster f…

The first huge mistake that St. Johns PD made was not reading the child his Miranda Warnings.  Here in Maricopa County, all law enforcement officers are required to read special juvenile Miranda Warnings to anyone under the age of 18.  Now I don’t know if they have special juvenile Miranda Warnings in Apache County, but it does not matter.  Just based on that huge mistake a good attorney could get the whole case thrown out.

The second huge mistake the department made was not getting special forensic interviewers to step in and question the boy.  A forensic interviewer was needed in order to interrogate the boy and not taint the case.  Instead, you have these two bonehead wannabe detectives who wanted to solve the crime of the century in this town of 3900 people, so they in all their infinite wisdom decided to take matters into their own hands.  The questions they asked were leading and should have been asked in a different manner.  This incompetent department should have called in the Arizona department of Public Safety (aka state police in some states) and let them handle the investigation.  They have the resources and the personnel to handle this case.  Even if St. Johns PD had a forensic interviewer they should have called in DPS due to the fact that St. Johns is so small and it is one of those towns where “everyone knows your name.”

The third huge mistake was not having a parent, other family member or lawyer sit in with the child during the interrogation.  This kid is only eight years old and in AZ the culpable mental state for a person to be held responsible for committing a crime is nine years old.  How the hell is this kid going to know what is going on?  This kid doesn’t have a clue.  Yet these crime busters from St. Johns take him in, interrogate him and then hand out high fives for a job well done.  They got the confession and now they are ready to present their evidence to a judge.

Now, with all that stated here are some unanswered questions.  Why did the boy shoot his dad and another male friend who was at the house?  Also, the boy used a .22 cal single shot rifle and both men were shot multiple times.  How in the hell does and eight year old boy get the drop on two grown men and he is able to take them both out with a single shot .22 cal rifle?  Think about it.  For those of you who are not familiar with firearms, a typical .22 cal single shot rifle means after every shot, you have to take out the empty shell, reload a live round into the weapon, then you have to “cock” it, and then you are ready to fire.  So, say this kid gets off the first shot and hits one of the men in the head at close range.  Well, at close range the round can penetrate a human skull and most likely it will bounce around and scramble the brain.  So, ok I can see taking out one man, but what the hell?  While the kid is reloading man number two should have had plenty of time to either rush the kid and take the weapon away or he could have run out of the house and gone for help.  I bring this up because during the interrogation, the boy changed his story, but one thing that was consistent was the fact that he shot them more than once.  The boy stated he came home and found his dad and friend both lying in the house and they were already shot.  Then the boy stated he shot them.  Then he stated he found them shot and in pain so he finished them off to end their suffering.  Apparently the boy’s father told him at one time if he ever found a suffering animal he should shoot it in order to put it out of it’s misery.

This whole situation was handled badly, and the fact that an eight year old boy was able to kill two grown men with a single shot small caliber rifle leads me to believe there is more to the story than what is being told.  But, it seems that St. Johns feels they have the case solved and there is no reason to look at other possibilities.  Way to go St. Johns PD.  You have proven your worth to the protection of society.