The grandmother of a 10-year-old boy who allegedly killed his mother after she refused to buy him a virtual reality headset has revealed that her grandson has "always" heard voices in his head.
As previously reported, the Milwaukee child - whose name has been withheld due to his age - was charged as an adult after fatally shooting his mom, 44-year-old Quiana Mann, in the face from three feet away while she was doing laundry.
The boy originally told police that he had simply wanted to "scare" his mom, but that she had accidentally walked into his line of fire. His story changed, however, and he eventually admitted to intending to aim at Mann before fatally shooting her at their home on 87th Street near Hemlock at around 7:00AM on November 21.
After the incident, the boy - who was described as having "rage issues" by relatives - recounted to police that he'd placed the firearm in a closet, and told his older sister that their mom was dead. Police were then called.
The New York Post reports that the boy had used his dead mother's credit card to purchase the Oculus VR headset he wanted on Amazon, which can cost between $130 and $500.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that the boy has been charged with first-degree reckless homicide and will likely be tried as an adult, given the serious nature of his crime.
His attorney Angela Cunningham has since stated that the adult prison system is not equipped to deal with a 10-year-old, telling the journal: "This is an absolute family tragedy. I don't think anybody would deny or disagree with that. The adult system is absolutely ill-equipped to address the needs of a 10-year-old child."
In an interview with The Daily Beast this week the boy's grandmother Lueritha Mann revealed that he had "always" heard voices in his head, telling the publication: "He's always said that he hears voices. There's two little girls inside his head telling him to do things. And he has an imaginary friend that will tell him to do really bad things."
She then added that her grandson had difficulty sleeping as a result of the voices he heard, which allegedly would start early in the morning. "He said that his thoughts and everything starts generating at five or six in the morning. Sometimes four o'clock," she said.
The boy had apparently sustained an injury after falling off a swing several years ago, with his grandmother claiming that his mental health deteriorated after that. "So that just meshed with the mental illness and it just kind of spiraled and made him worse," she said. "It was bad. Sometimes he would have these episodes where he was just kind of mean to [his mother]."
Currently being held in a juvenile detention center, the young boy is expected to appear in court on Thursday (December 8). His bail has been set at $50,000 and, if a jury finds him guilty on the charges, he could be facing up to 60 years in prison.