NEW YORK: A 15-year-old Florida boy is accused of shooting his 14-year-old brother after that teenager fatally shot their 23-year-old sister as she sat outside with her baby on Christmas Eve, authorities said Tuesday.
Police said the brothers had earlier gotten into a fight during a family shopping trip over who was getting what for Christmas, reported tca/dpa citing CBS News. When the siblings’ mother took them all to their grandmother’s house in Largo (near Tampa, Florida) afterwards, the fighting continued. The 14-year-old reportedly pointed a semiautomatic handgun at his older brother’s head and threatened to kill him.
The boys were separated by an uncle who managed to get the younger sibling out of the house where his sister, Abrielle Baldwin, was sitting outside with her child. Baldwin is said to have asked her brother to end the dispute.
The 14-year-old, apparently angered by his sister’s request, berated her with pejoratives, then threatened to shoot Baldwin and her baby before firing a bullet into the woman’s arm and chest. Her baby was uninjured.
The 15-year-old reportedly then emerged from the grandmother’s house with a semiautomatic handgun and shot his younger brother in the stomach. He then fled the home, throwing the gun into a nearby yard, and was later taken into custody at a family member’s house.
The younger brother, who might be charged as an adult for first-degree murder, is in stable condition in a Tampa-area hospital after undergoing surgery. The 15-year-old has been charged with attempted first-degree murder and tampering with physical evidence.
CBS News reports both teens have prior arrests for vehicular burglaries.
The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Department told the Daily News that “the investigation is still open and active, therefore the report can’t be released”.
Baldwin also had a 6-year-old child. – Bernama, tca/dpa
