www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/news/local/13505718.htm


Elizabeth A. White died Tuesday of a shot to the heart, fired by her 14-year-old son from a pellet gun his grandfather had given him for Christmas. The boy pulled the trigger while defending his grandfather, Wichita police said Wednesday. They ruled White's death a justifiable homicide.

White, 40, had a history of drug problems and had spent more time in prison than out over the past 16 years. After a day of sorting out the incident, police released the details of their investigation: White had been living in Salina but was in Wichita over the weekend after her family invited her for Christmas to the house where her parents raised her children. Tuesday afternoon, White returned to the house in the 4000 block of East Brooks, across from the middle school bearing the same name.

Armed with scissors, she repeatedly threatened to kill her 73-year-old father. He tried to fend her off with a cane, while his 68-year-old wife grabbed a kitchen knife. The argument spilled out into the front yard, where the father tripped over a planter and fell. As White moved toward her father with the scissors, the teenage boy stepped onto the front porch with the air rifle his grandfather had given him as a present Sunday. The boy fired once from about 20 feet away, shooting his mother through the heart.

White threw the scissors at her son but they flew onto the roof of the house. She then got in her car and drove to Bluff, where she turned south.

Police suspect White's chest wound caused her to lose control of the car as she approached 27th Street. The car hit two poles, went through a fence, then hit an SUV that had been sitting on the street. White's car jumped the curb and landed in a yard, with the engine on fire.

Emergency services had been notified of a domestic dispute at the house around 2:30 p.m. and then of the accident a few blocks east of Hillside minutes later. Sedgwick County Emergency Medical Services arrived at the scene first, with police close behind. A patrol officer broke the window out of the driver's side of the car, and a paramedic pulled White out of the car. Another paramedic extinguished the fire under the hood. White was unconscious when she was pulled from the car and died at 4:30 p.m. after emergency surgery at a Wichita hospital.

The boy had no idea the air rifle would be capable of delivering such a deadly shot. "This is a tragic situation," said police Capt. Randy Landen.

State correctional and court records show that White began running into trouble with the law over drugs in 1989. She was in prison four years later following a string of drug offenses, along with convictions for prostitution, writing bad checks and making threats. White got out of prison for the last time a little more than a year ago but absconded from her parole in July. Her sentence expired in August.

...what that kid will have to live with should not be...

A 9mm would have bounced off her.

wtf - with a bullet rifle ?

"This is a tragic situation"

I can think of a couple other ways this story could have ended that would have been more tragic.  But still, poor kid.

I feel bad for the kid for having to do that, but he did the right thing.

Quoted: wtf - with a bullet rifle ?

Pellet rifle

happy holidays...

too bad for the kid, but maybe it will lead to a little more stability down the road despite what he just went through

Damn, thats so sad on so many levels.  He did what he needed to do, but what a way to start life out so early.

The mother forced that kid to take the action he did. It's not his fault that the POS died, it's totally %100 her fault. He should feel no guilt for taking out the defective human trash, it may have not been his intention to kill her,  using deadly force technically isn't, it was his intention to "Stop" her and he did, her death was an unexpected result. I hope his conscience rests easy & clear.

Oh, and good job gramps on the gift choice, it ultimately saved your own life.

Quoted: The mother forced that kid to take the action he did. It's not his fault that the POS died, it's totally %100 her fault. He should feel no guilt for taking out the defective human trash, it may have not been his intention to kill her,  using deadly force technically isn't, it was his intention to "Stop" her and he did, her death was an unexpected result. I hope his conscience rests easy & clear. Oh, and good job gramps on the gift choice, it ultimately saved your own life.

Have a heart bro, it's still his Mom.

sad, but good shot

The only thing worse would be having a drug addicted psycho Mom for the rest of his life fucking up everything she could. Kid did himself a huge favor.

Quoted: The mother forced that kid to take the action he did. It's not his fault that the POS died, it's totally %100 her fault. He should feel no guilt for taking out the defective human trash, it may have not been his intention to kill her,  using deadly force technically isn't, it was his intention to "Stop" her and he did, her death was an unexpected result. I hope his conscience rests easy & clear. Oh, and good job gramps on the gift choice, it ultimately saved your own life.

I agree with the sentiment, but logic and feelings have a way of being mutually exclusive.

Quoted: The mother forced that kid to take the action he did. It's not his fault that the POS died, it's totally %100 her fault. He should feel no guilt for taking out the defective human trash, it may have not been his intention to kill her,  using deadly force technically isn't, it was his intention to "Stop" her and he did, her death was an unexpected result. I hope his conscience rests easy & clear. Oh, and good job gramps on the gift choice, it ultimately saved your own life.

Kid's a hero in my book.

With a dumb bitch for a mother, who knows what this kid has seen and heard in his short lifetime. I have a couple of family members that have put our family through hell with their drug addictions, thieving, lying, and prison sentences. That only sums up the last couple of years. God knows what I would do if I was put in the situation of defending my family from those pieces of shit. I feel sorry for the kid because the years of emotional torment are finally going to end in one respect, but just beginning in another.

I don't feel bad for the kid at all. In the article it says: White, 40, had a history of drug problems and had spent more time in prison than out over the past 16 years. If the kid was 14 then I bet money that he barely knew her.

Was it really the shot that killed her or the car crash?  I don't think the kid should have to live with the guilt [although misplaced] that he killed his mother.  I think the emphases should be on the car crash.

God wanted her dead.  

Ban pellet guns, for the mothers??? Doesn't sound as good as "for the children".

Quoted: Quoted: The mother forced that kid to take the action he did. It's not his fault that the POS died, it's totally %100 her fault. He should feel no guilt for taking out the defective human trash, it may have not been his intention to kill her,  using deadly force technically isn't, it was his intention to "Stop" her and he did, her death was an unexpected result. I hope his conscience rests easy & clear. Oh, and good job gramps on the gift choice, it ultimately saved your own life. Have a heart bro, it's still his Mom.

Was she really? If she spent more of the past 16 years incarcerated than being a mother to her son, was she really his mother? I think more of an egg donor myself. No mention of the sperm donor father either.

Grandma and grandpa were his mother & father, clearly states they raised him. His egg donor "mother" lived away from him. She was invited to visit, no doubt out of kindness and in the spirit of the Holiday and she obviously chose to be stupid.

Some people simply can't be helped with love, reasoning, forgiveness or medicine.

Apologize in advance of my harsh tone, it's not intentional, I've witnessed too many lives ruined by people like this woman while those around them take a Liberal attitude about the system failing them, if only they had this, they were deprived, abused etc. Thankfully the grandparents had the courage to take over.

I hope the kid gets professional counciling to help him cope but it's not his fault, it's hers. Remember that too if you are ever forced to defend yourself.

All about shot placement.....
I know kinda asshat to say but oh fucking well.

That boys a good shot!  Straight thru the ribs and to the heart, the boy's pellet did go...

Quoted: Was it really the shot that killed her or the car crash?  I don't think the kid should have to live with the guilt [although misplaced] that he killed his mother.  I think the emphases should be on the car crash.

Well said, Patty.  The "authorities" involved should have emphasised the crash and spared the poor boy undeserved guilt.

Poor kid.  I agree that he did the right thing, but sometimes the right thing can be very painful emotionally.

I think its ludicrest to say with certanty that the shot actually caused the crash.  How do they know she wasn't so enraged from the scissor/knife fight that she wasn't thinking clearly?

Autopsy will confirm if she crashed from internal bleeding due to the pellet in the heart or not.

Quoted: Dog wanted to eat her head.

Quoted: The mother forced that kid to take the action he did. It's not his fault that the POS died, it's totally %100 her fault. He should feel no guilt for taking out the defective human trash, it may have not been his intention to kill her,  using deadly force technically isn't, it was his intention to "Stop" her and he did, her death was an unexpected result. I hope his conscience rests easy & clear. Oh, and good job gramps on the gift choice, it ultimately saved your own life.

Should have bought the boy a 22. auto.

Gee... after hearing this story, I'm gonna sell my .22 and .38 and buy a Red Ryder!

Quoted: Was it really the shot that killed her or the car crash?  I don't think the kid should have to live with the guilt [although misplaced] that he killed his mother.  I think the emphases should be on the car crash.

No doubt.  That is what I was thinking as I read.

I honestly think this is another example of the liberal slant of the news.  "Well, she really died in the crash...but lets make this better and say....."

She did it to herself from the car crash not the shot.  If she had called 911 and gotten medical attention she would be alive to stand trail for assaulting and battering an old man.

Damn

Gotta give that boy some credit.  It took sand to take on an armed attacker with what you had at hand, a pellet rifle, and save the day.  Hopefully he'll not be too torn up over gaining his freedom from that waste of good air he was forced to call 'Mom'.

Still who wants to see a child have to step up like that?  Sad.

Quoted: Quoted: Dog wanted to eat her head.

For some reason I laughed hysterically at that comment, reminded me of those southpark cartoons where the mice drag off Kenny's body after he dies.

Quoted: Was it really the shot that killed her or the car crash?  I don't think the kid should have to live with the guilt [although misplaced] that he killed his mother.  I think the emphases should be on the car crash.

me to, I would have been easier to say the crash killed her.

Some times in this life you get only one chance  to do the right thing!!!  The boy weighed his options and chose to defend that what was closest to him!

Why would we secound guess his intentions,he used his gun to protect a life that he felt was in danger!!!

He's a lesson to be learned by all of us,he has more remorse than he feels now if he had let the other killing take place!!!

One has choices ,but only a nano-sec to make them!!!

God help this little man in his future life!!

Bob

Jesus  how many times did he pump that thing up to cause a pellet to go that deep? Was it even a "pellet" or a copper "BB" I wonder? Pellets are usually those aluminum kind that sometimes are "arrow-head" shaped with two small rings behind them and a cylindrical core. They go faster and penetrate decent enough but usually will deform upon hitting something relatively hard.


- rem

Sounds like the kid will be better off in the long run...

Still to bad he will have to live with this one.

If it was a high-powered pellet rifle (probably not the olympic $2,500+ style but still...) it could puncture the skin of someone's chest since it is pretty thing there, especially for women that don't take care of themselves and are very thin. At the right angle it could have gone into the right ventrical, and caused a tear there, which could lead to a heart attack and a bleed-out internally. I doubt it could pierce the heart itself, especially while it is beating.

- rem

Quoted: A 9mm would have bounced off her.

haha