12-Year-Old Ohio Boy Kills 9-Year-Old Brother, Himself

A 12-year-old Ohio boy shot and killed his 9-year-old brother before turning the gun on himself, a coroner said after the tragic shooting on Wednesday.

People in the Ohio town were devastated Wednesday after news that the two boys — 12-year-old Austin Wiseman and his 9-year-old Brother, Blake Campbell — were found shot to death. The boys lived with their grandparents, who came home from an errand Wednesday morning to found the boys dead in a bedroom.

It was not known where the boys’ mother, 32-year-old Kelly Lenoir Harris, was at the time of the shooting.

Police did not initially know the circumstances of the shooting. There were several guns found at the scene, including a .44-caliber revolver. On Thursday a medical examiner found that the 12-year-old killed his 9-year-old brother with a gunshot to the head, but it was not determined if his death was an accident.

Aaron Causey, the 13-year-old cousin of Austin, said he spent many nights at the house playing XBox video games with the brothers. After the murder-suicide, his grandmother Shirley Causey said she remembered Austin as a well-behaved boy.

“He’s just a very sweet kid. It’s shocking that this happened,” Shirley Causey said.

Investigators are still looking into how the shooting took place, and which gun was used. Only the handgun was loaded, they noted.

“This is one of the unspeakable tragedies no community ever wants to deal with,” Jackson Mayor Randy Heath told WCMH-TV. “I’m sure a great number of parents and grandparents all went to bed thinking, ‘Is there any way we can make our children safer?’ And hopefully we’ll have some parents thinking maybe we need to take that extra step.”

A full autopsy will be performed on the 12-year-old and the 9-year-old brother he killed. Authorities said it would be completed in about six weeks, shedding more light on the circumstances surrounding the shooting.