While You Were Sleeping: McKayla Dyer

There was a school shooting last week and another one in Arizona this morning that is still developing. Meanwhile an 8 year old girl named McKayla Dyer was shot and killed by an 11 year old at a trailer park in White Pine, Tennessee and no one mentioned it. Back in the day a young, White kid being killed would dominate the news but in todays world it barely makes headlines. Its not sensational enough. Not enough blood. Not the right race to get attention. No cops involved. Just a kid killed. Its sad but true.

The 11 year old shooters name is not being released due to his age but he may be tried as an adult. It is being said that the boy shot McKayla because she would not let him see her puppy. He got his fathers shotgun and shot her in the chest. Her sister witnessed this. When police arrived she was unresponsive and was pronounced dead at the hospital. The boy and his family were taken to the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office to be interviewed. The father asked for a lawyer to be present during the process.

Not actual weapon used.

Sheriff McCoig said that the boy is being held at a juvenile detention center. “In Tennessee, you don’t have to register your firearms but when you go buy one; you have to pass the background check. This was a common shotgun used for hunting. The father could legally purchase the gun.” He also said that the Dyer family is not pursuing any actions against the boys family and that “...they're just angry. They're angry at the loss of their child. They want him prosecuted. We're doing everything we can to do what's legally and rightfully possible, what we are supposed to by law.”

The boy is set to start trial later this month and the sheriff hopes to get the case in an adult court and if the boy is tried and found guilty he could get life but no death penalty. Don't look confused. Kids have been sentenced to death in the U.S before. Attorney Nathan Luna stated “They would have to show that an 11-year-old committed a crime that was premeditated and calculated: That this just wasn't just two kids playing around, not just an 11-year-old who got mad.”

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