11-year-old boy who killed girl, 8 for refusing to let him play with puppies found guilty of first-degree murder

11-year-old boy who killed girl, 8
for refusing to let him play with
puppies found guilty of first-degree
murder
The young boy who killed 8-year-old MaKayla Dyer
with a shotgun on the Tennessee trailer park
where they both lived has been found guilty of
first-degree murder and sentenced to state
custody until he turns 19.
The judge’s order, posted online by local television
station WATE-TV, said the state should use all
reasonable resources to determine why the boy
shot the girl, and added he should be treated and
rehabilitated so this never happens again.
"A child who commits first-degree murder
cannot be willy-nilly turned loose into
society." Judge Dennis Roach wrote.
According to his description of events, on October
3, 2015, MaKayla and her sister were playing
outside and talking to the boy while he sat at his
bedroom window on the mobile home site in the
town of White Pine. He then asked the sisters to go
get their puppies and when they refused he went
to get a 12-gauge shotgun and a BB gun and told
the girls he had guns.
McKayla is said to have laughed at him and
responded that the guns weren't real. The boy
"then made certain the gun was loaded, cocked the
hammer on the gun and shot the victim just above
the heart at a downward trajectory," Judge Roach
wrote. The girl fell backward, "quickly lost
consciousness, and was later confirmed dead," he
added. "The mother of the child knelt on the
ground and picked her up, placing her child in her
arms as she passed away."