In a terrible event in Kansas, a 46-year-old mother named T. Florence is facing harsh legal consequences for killing her 16-year-old son. The terrible thing happened earlier this month in the family’s apartment. It was the worst part of what police call a heated moment that went horribly wrong.
Florence has been arrested and charged with murder in the second degree, assault in the first degree, and burglary in the first degree.
Florence was arrested after telling the police at the scene of the shooting, “I shot my baby” because she was so upset.
The event took place in the morning of October 9, when police were called to Florence’s apartment because of reports of a shooting.
According to police reports, Florence was found outside of her apartment, clearly upset and hopeless as she fell to the ground and cried out in pain.
Inside the apartment, Florence’s 16-year-old son was found lying face-down on the floor of the living room, having been shot in the head and killed.
The teen’s death was confirmed two days later, adding to the tragedy that has since brought a lot of attention to issues of gun safety and mental health in family relationships.
Florence and her son reportedly got into a fight over his refusal to go to school that day, which made things worse.
The police affidavit says that the teenager was causing problems at home by constantly bothering his mother and saying that he wanted to get marijuana. His bad behavior got worse until he was breaking things around the house, which he did to make his mother mad.
Florence told the police that her son getting a Ruger Security 9 mm handgun out of a backpack was the last thing that happened.
It was her son holding the gun, she said, and he didn’t make any threats or point it at her. Florence rushed to take the gun away and, in the heat of the moment, pointed it at her son and asked, “Do you just want to die?” Soon after, the gun went off.
During her interview with the police, Florence insisted that she had not meant to shoot her son. She thought the gun was empty, but she remembered putting two rounds in it a few weeks before the event.
She told the police that she “racked the slide back” and loaded the gun with a bullet when she took it from the boy. In spite of this, she insisted that her only goal was to scare him and not hurt him.
The family and the community are both very upset about what happened. Florence’s actions not only killed her young son, but they also got her arrested and could now lead to a life sentence. This shows how dangerous it is to use guns in family situations.
The case has also brought up details of something that happened in March: Florence is accused of breaking into her ex-husband’s house and threatening him and his girlfriend with the gun that she used to shoot her son.
This old fight has made her legal problems more complicated and shows that she has ongoing problems controlling her anger and acting properly.
Florence is being held on a $1.2 million bond right now. Her case is still going on, and her next court date is set to talk about both the murder of her son and the charges that came from what happened in March.
As the legal process goes on, people in the community and advocates keep stressing how important it is to keep guns locked up and get help for mental health problems so that tragedies like this don’t happen again.
