There isn’t a reset button in real life
Sheriff’s lament as boy, 9, shoots sister, 14, dead in video game row
A NINE-YEAR-OLD boy fatally shot his 14-year-old sister after she refused to hand over a video game controller.
The boy blasted Dijonae White in the back of the head at close range after fetching a pistol from a bedside table.
Their mother Chalandra White, who had been feeding her other children lunch at the time, called emergency services to her home in Wren, Mississippi, after the incident on Saturday afternoon. Dijonae was taken to a local children’s hospital but succumbed to her injuries the following evening.
Sheriff Cecil Cantrell told the Daily Mail: ‘ A lot of these kids play video games and they hit the reset button and everything is okay. In real life you can’t hit the reset button.’
He said the boy, who has not been named, took the .25 calibre pistol from a drawer in a bedside table. The weapon was owned legally by Mrs White’s live- in boyfriend.
He said the children were believed to playing with a Playstation. ‘The little girl and the little boy were playing video games and he wanted the controller but she wouldn’t give it to him,’ the sheriff said.
‘He went to the [bedroom], opened up a drawer and got out a gun and walked back in and shot her in the back of the head. It’s awful. It’s such a tragic thing and has affected the whole community.’
He added: ‘I talked to the boy myself and he was very emotional. I felt really sorry for him because there were people hollering at him and I told them to be quiet, we have to figure out what happened. The boy was cooperative and showed me exactly what happened and what he did. I don’t think he understands what he did. He sort of does, but at the same time he’s nine years old, he doesn’t understand.’
‘The juvenile court will be in charge of what happens with him at this point. I think this is new ground for them also.’ It is not clear if Mrs White or her boyfriend will face criminal charges, but Sheriff Cantrell stressed that the tragedy could have been avoided.
‘I want people to understand that if you need weapons for protection you have to make sure kids can’t get hold of them,’ he said.
‘If a kid can get hold of them to do this, he could put it in his backpack and take it to school where he would do more harm to others. That could have happened here.’
Family friend Dyesha Getties wrote online: ‘Praying for you Love. Praying for the family. Hold on strong.’ Another friend, Formeeka Lockridge, posted: ‘Dijonae I love u and gone miss u so much! Words can’t express how much u will b missed!’
Debate on gun control has raged in the US following the slaughter of 17 teachers and children at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida on Valentine’s Day. Last week pupils across the country held walkouts calling for tighter background checks and higher age limits on gun purchases.
Americans own 270million guns – more than any other nation on Earth. Since January 2013 the US has had more than 1,600 mass shootings with four or more victims.
‘I don’t think he understands’