A 10-year-old in Mexico shot and killed another 11-year-old because he beat him at video games, several Mexican media reported Wednesday.
The attacker shot the victim with a pistol that he picked up at the family home in a miserable area of the state of Veracruz (southeast).
The two children had played on a video console rented from a local business in the town of La Perla.
"Responsibility" of parents
“I only ask for one thing, that they help me so that justice is done, because my son died through the fault of the parents of this child who killed my child”,
declared the mother of the victim at the funeral on Tuesday, quoted by the daily Reforma.
The perpetrator's parents are responsible because they left
"a gun on the table"
, according to the mother, who is called Leticia by Reforma.
The assailant and his family fled.
It is
“sad”
that a child can have access to a weapon, commented the governor of the state of Veracruz, Cuitlahuac Garcia, considering that there were
“without doubt responsibilities”
to be established.
Experts quoted by Mexican media believe that the petty aggressor is also a victim of violence in certain regions of a country which recorded 30,968 homicides in 2022 (down 7.1% in one year).
Veracruz is one of the poorest states in Mexico, and one of the most violent.