Boy, 11, shoots dad's fiancée with shotgun

UNITED STATES - This morning in the town of Wampum, 45 miles northwest of Pittsburgh, 11-year-old fifth-grader Jordan Brown boarded the bus and headed to school like he did most other mornings in this rural western Pennsylvania community.

But before he left home on Friday, the 11-year-old boy shot his father's pregnant fiancée in the back of the head as she slept in bed. He then put his youth model 20-gauge shotgun back in his room before going out to catch his bus, police say. Houk's fetus died within minutes due to a lack of oxygen

Brown was charged Saturday as an adult in the death of 26-year-old Kenzie Marie Houk, who was eight months pregnant. Houk's family and friends says that there had been past problems with the boy.

"He actually told my son that he wanted to do that to her," said Houk's brother-in-law, Jason Kraner. "There was an issue with jealousy.''

Pennsylvania State Police found Houk's body in the rented farmhouse after her 4-year-old daughter told tree cutters on the property she thought her mother was dead.

The boy told police there was a black truck on the property that morning – possibly the man who feeds the cows – sending investigators to follow a false lead for about five hours. Inconsistencies in Brown's description of the truck led police to re-interview Houk's 7-year-old daughter, who implicated the boy in the killing. State troopers went to get the boy at school.

"She didn't actually eyewitness the shooting. She saw him with what she believed to be a shotgun and heard a loud bang," says police. The gun was found in a "location we believe to be in the defendant's bedroom."

"An 11-year-old kid – what would give him the motive to shoot someone?" said Houk's father, Jack Houk. "Maybe he was just jealous of my daughter and the baby and thought he would be overpowered."

The boy's father, Christopher Brown, is "a mess" and had no indication his son had a problem with Houk. "He's in a state of actual shock and disbelief," says Jack Houk.

The shotgun used is designed for children and has a shorter arm and such weapons do not have to be registered. Jack Houk, 57, said the boy and his father used to practice shooting behind their farmhouse, and the two enjoyed going hunting together.

And these guns are legal...?