A 10-year-old in Mexico shot and killed another 11-year-old for hitting him at video games, multiple Mexican media outlets reported on Wednesday.
The attacker shot the victim with a pistol he picked up at the family home in a miserable area of Veracruz state (southeast).
The two children had been playing on a video console rented from a neighborhood shop in the town of La Perla.
“All I ask is that you help me bring about justice because my son died at the fault of this child’s parents who killed my child,” the victim’s mother said at Tuesday’s funeral, as quoted by the daily reform.
The perpetrator’s parents are responsible because, according to the mother, who is called Leticia by Reforma, they “left a gun on the table”.
The attacker and his family fled.
It is “sad” that a child could have access to a gun, commented Veracruz state governor Cuitlahuac Garcia, noting that “without a doubt responsibilities” need to be established.
Experts cited by Mexican media believe the small-time assailant is also a victim of violence in parts of a country that recorded 30,968 homicides in 2022 (down 7.1% from the previous year).
In the neighboring United States, a six-year-old boy was arrested on January 6 after he shot and killed his lover in class at a school in eastern Virginia, police said, seriously injuring her.
The 9mm Taurus pistol had been legally purchased by the child’s mother.
Veracruz is one of the poorest states in Mexico and one of the most violent.