A Wisconsin family is struggling with coping after their 10-year-old relative shot and killed his mother out of anger because she didn’t buy him a VR headset. Close or not, his grandmother wants him to pay.
In an interview with WTMJ-TV, a local Milwaukee news station, the boy’s aunt, ShaRhonda Reid, and his grandmother, Lueritha Mann, spoke about the morning Quiana was killed by her 10-year-old and how the family struggles to cope with the situation of the child taking the life of a beloved mother.
“It’s hard because she’s supposed to be here,” Lueritha cried.
The grandmother of the 10-year-old also mentioned that it was difficult to fathom since no one in the family suspected he would do something like it.
Per a News Onyx report, a 10-year-old Wisconsin boy fatally shot his mother, Quiana Mann, in November because she refused to buy him an Oculus Virtual Reality Headset.
Around 6 a.m. on November 21, Quiana woke the boy up, which added to his anger about not getting the VR headset. After reportedly grabbing the keys to Quiana’s safe and retrieving her gun, he went to the basement, where she was doing laundry.
The boy told police that the gun accidentally went off from twirling it around his finger, but he confessed to his aunt that he aimed the gun at his mother and shot her in the face. She shared her concerns with the police, who eventually got the truth out of him.
The grandmother was the first one Quiana’s 26-year-old daughter called after speaking with the police. Lueritha and Reid not only encountered the news of Quiana’s death but also saw the 10-year-old’s psychopathic behavior during a trying time.
According to Lueritha and Reid, the boy continued talking about the “electronic devices.” To add salt to the wound, they learned that the child ordered the VR headset he wanted on Amazon right after killing his mother.
Lueritha added that the 10-year-old facial expressions didn’t match the nature of events happening before them.
“I had to see my daughter being brought out…the way she was,” the grandmother said. “And you come out the front door happy. It’s just not right.”
The worrisome reaction continued after Reid drove the child to his grandmother’s house, where child welfare workers would meet with them.
After noticing his grandmother crying, the boy responded in a sociopathic manner.
“I’m really sorry for what happened. I’m sorry for killing my mom,” he said without compassion or empathy, according to his aunt. He then asked if his Amazon package had arrived.
The 10-year-old has a history of psychopathic behavior to the point where family members described him as intelligent and manipulative, which caused a rift in the family.
When he was 4, he harmed the family’s puppy after swinging it by the tail. Quiana got rid of the puppy, scared it would one day retaliate. Family members told police that the boy filled a balloon with a flammable liquid and set it on fire, causing some furniture and the carpet to burn.
He explained to some family members that he would hear voices in his head telling him to do things, precisely two girls, an older woman and two men, one of whom was “mean” to him.
The boy was receiving psychological help from a therapist, who suggested that he had limited access to electronics, which could explain his unhealthy obsession with electronic devices.
The boy is being tried as an adult and has a bond set for $50,000. And while his family still loves him and sees him as family, they think placing him behind bars would be best, primarily since he hasn’t fully understood the severity of his actions and where he could end up.
According to Reid, what happened to his mother is nowhere on his mind because he would only talk about his electronics.
“When he calls, he’s just like, ‘make sure all my tablets and laptop and everything of mine is packaged,” Reid explained.
Lueritha told the Daily Beast that he told them he was still on Santa’s list and expected to have presents on Christmas. Although it’s hard for them to hear their family member’s 10-year-old killer talk as though he didn’t take Quiana’s life, they push through.
“He said Santa’s bringing him some things for Christmas,” she recalled. “He said yesterday, ‘Can we go to the house and decorate it for Christmas? Put up the Christmas tree and decorate the outside of the house?’ If he can’t come to help, he wants us to go and do it. We told him we would do that.”
The grandmother said she wasn’t ready to talk to him but hoped to one day.
“He took something very precious from me.”
