The son emerged from the bedroom to say that his father was "bleeding from the head and dead," according to the warrant. Police found multiple firearms in the bedroom as well as a bloody hatchet and a handgun with one bullet missing under the bed.
A 9-year-old boy in Utah is suspected of killing his father in a "gruesome, violent" manner, according to police.
The Tooele Police Department is still investigating the incident in which a man was shot in the head and then repeatedly struck with a hatchet, KUTV reports.
Newly unsealed warrants initially obtained and viewed by KUTV reportedly say the victim's young son has been identified as the suspect.
Officers arrived on the scene of what they believed to be a suicide attempt at around 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 16 after receiving a report of a 32-year-old man with a gunshot wound to the head, according to the warrant.
It quickly became clear that the gunshot wound was not self-inflicted, according to the warrant.
"Upon further investigation, [the victim] was found to have been shot in the back of the head and had lacerations to his head, face, hands and arms," says the warrant. "Medical personnel at the hospital advised that the lacerations to the extremities appeared to be 'defensive wounds.'"
The warrant says that two other adults were present at the home that evening, and they told police that there had been an issue between father and son.
"The victim and his son retired to bed early due to behavioral problems and went into the bedroom that they share," says the warrant. Then, sometime later, the son emerged from the bedroom alone to say that his father was "bleeding from the head and dead," according to the warrant.
Police found multiple firearms in the bedroom as well as a bloody hatchet and a handgun with one bullet missing from the magazine under the victim's bed, according to the warrant.
One of the detectives writes in the warrant that the tomahawk-style hatchet attack likely occurred after the victim had been shot in the head.
That same detective describes the killing as "particularly gruesome, violent" and notes that the "specific methods used in the assault, (i.e. single shot to the head, followed up with tomahawk strikes)" do not appear to be actions "even known about by children of a similar age," according to the warrant.
It is noted in the warrant that the boy often played video games on his tablet, which were "particularly violent in nature," and that he had previously "viewed videos that were deemed not age-appropriate and shared details of these videos with other children in the home, resulting in discipline.”
Among the video games that the boy played was one in which both a handgun and a tomahawk are available as weapons, according to the warrant.
Emergency responders rushed the man to the hospital, where he died the following day.
His 9-year-old son was arrested three days later on Feb. 20, a spokesperson for the Toole Police Department tells Inside Edition Digital. That spokesperson declined to provide any further information about charges the boy may face or if the boy has remained in custody on account of his age.
Related Stories
