An 11-year-old boy shot and killed his mother’s boyfriend during an altercation in a Southwest Philadelphia home Thursday evening, police said.
They did not identify the child because of his age.
Officers were called to the scene at a rowhouse on the 1100 block of South Peach Street around 11:30 p.m., police said.
There they found a 30-year-old man suffering from a gunshot wound to the face in a back bedroom on the second floor.
Police later identified the man as Jaimeer Jones-Walker of Lansdowne.
Chief Inspector Scott Small said that based on preliminary evidence, police believe Jones-Walker showed up at the home, where the woman lives with family, and began to argue and physically assault her.
In response, he said, the child pulled a semiautomatic handgun and fired one shot, striking Jones-Walker.
Jones-Walker is not the boy’s father, Small said.
The gun was registered to the child’s mother, according to police, who are continuing to investigate the shooting.
The boy and his mother are cooperating with authorities, Small said.
Incidents in which a child fatally shoots an adult are rare, Small said.
“It’s unusual,” he said.
The stretch of South Peach Street was quiet Friday morning, and neighbors walking along the block or sitting outside said they did not recall hearing gunshots Thursday night.
Neighbors said they often saw the woman with her daughter and son outside the home, and occasionally saw Jones-Walker, too.