A 14-year-old Florida teen fatally shot his sister in an argument over Christmas gifts, only to be shot moments later by his own teenage brother, authorities said.
The argument started when the brothers, ages 14 and 15, were out shopping on Christmas Eve Sunday with their mother and sister, and got into a spat over who was receiving more Christmas gifts, Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said during a news conference.
After shopping, the boys, their mother, their 23-year-old sister Abrielle Baldwin, and Baldwin’s two young children, ages 6 and 11 months, went to their grandmother’s home in Largo where the argument continued.
That’s when the 14-year-old brother “stood in the doorway, he took out his .40 caliber semi-automatic handgun, and he pointed it at [his brother] and told him he was going to shoot him in the head,” Gualtieri said.
The 14-year-old tried to get his 15-year-old brother to fight and an uncle ended up separating them and moving the 14-year-old outside into the driveway area.
That’s where he found Abrielle carrying her 11-month-old baby in a carrier. She told him: “You all need to leave that stuff alone. Why are you trying to start it? It’s Christmas,” Gualtieri said.
The 14-year-old ensued to argue with her, called her “derogatory” terms, and shot her in the chest as she was holding her infant in the carrier, the sheriff said. She fell, and the baby fell too, but was unharmed.
The 15-year-old brother then came outside, and brought out a .45 caliber semi-automatic handgun, and exclaimed, “You shot my motherf—— sister!” and shot the 14-year-old one time in the stomach, according to the sheriff’s office.
The sheriff noted there was an “eight second gap” between the time the 14-year-old shot Abrielle and before he himself was shot. At the time he was shot, he was no longer in possession of his gun, the sheriff said.
The 15-year-old then ran, threw his gun in a nearby yard and fled to a relative’s house in Clearwater.
Abrielle was transported to a hospital and died of her wounds.
“She was just a woman going about life doing her thing with her two kids,” Gualtieri said. “Now you got an 11-month-old and a 6-year-old boy, and their mom’s dead.”
The 14-year-old was also hospitalized, underwent surgery, and is in stable condition. He will be released from the hospital to the Florida department of juvenile justice.
The 14-year-old was charged with first-degree murder, child abuse, and delinquent in possession of a firearm. The Pinellas-Pasco County State Attorney’s Office will determine whether or not he’ll be charged as an adult.
When police located the 15-year-old brother in Clearwater, he made self harm statements and was taken to a mental health facility. He was charged with attempted first-degree murder and tampering with physical evidence.
The .40 caliber handgun the 14-year-old used to shoot sister was recovered, but the .45 caliber gun the 15-year-old used has not been, officials said.
Gualtieri said during their investigation and interviews with locals, people said that the two teenage brothers “carried guns all the time.”
He said that the brothers got their guns by “stealing them from unlocked cars, they’re out in the middle of the night doing car burglaries,” noting both were arrested for committing numerous car burglaries in Oldsmar in May.
“These young kids 14, 15 years old routinely carry firearms and this is what happens when you got young delinquents that carry guns, they get upset they don’t know how to handle stuff so they just take out their guns and start shooting each other and one of them kills his sister,” the sheriff said.
The 14-year-old has arrests dating back to when he was 12 years old, including minor in possession with a gun, disorderly conduct, grand theft auto, auto burglaries, and battery on a school employee, Gualtieri said.
“This proliferation of guns in the streets and guns in this area and guns in the hands of these kids is the worst I’ve ever seen. I don’t think we’ve ever seen it this bad. I really think we need tougher laws to deal with these kids. They are not getting the consequences they should get,” the sheriff said.