Juvenile Justice
In Police Video, 8-Year-Old Boy Changes Story, Says He May Have Shot Dad
Posted Nov 19, 2008, 06:59 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
In a police video released to the media, an 8-year-old boy accused of shooting his father and another man gives shifting accounts of what happened, finally telling police he may have shot the men.
At first the boy denies any role in the killings, but his story changes with pressure, report the Arizona Republic and the Associated Press. First he says he came home from school and saw his father’s co-worker, Timothy Romans, lying on the ground and went inside to find his father, Vincent Romero, bloody from the shooting. Later he said he may have shot at a white car fleeing the scene. Then he said he may have shot his father and his co-worker Timothy Romans, after they had already been shot. The reason, he said, was to end their suffering.
"I think, um, I think I shot my dad because he was suffering, I think," the boy said. "So, I may have shot him."
Later the boy appears to admit to the shooting, saying "After I shot him once he was still moving, I think I shot him again," CNN reports. Asked what he’s thinking, the boy says, ''I'm going to go to juvie,'' and he buries his head in his jacket.
CNN ran part of of the video.
Steven Drizen, legal director at the Center on Wrongful Convictions in Chicago, told the Arizona Republic that children can be pressured into making false confessions. "There is a heightened risk of false confessions when police officers use tactics that are legally permissible with adults on children," he said.
The boy’s lawyer has said he thinks the tape will be excluded from court because the boy was questioned without a guardian or lawyer present.
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