Teen boy walked to church to call 911 after fatally shooting his mom and dad at home
Trevor Lee, 14, called authorities from the church in Middleburg shortly after midnight on Monday and admitted to killing his mom and dad, according to Clay County Sheriff Michelle Cook.
The teenager also told authorities that his parents could be found at their home nearby, and vowed to wait at the church for law enforcement to take him into custody.
When deputies then arrived at the home, they found David Lee, 44, and Brandi Smith, 45, dead from apparent gunshot wounds, Cook said at a news conference announcing the boy's arrest.
The murder weapon allegedly used by Trevor was found inside the house. Sheriff Cook said he left it behind when he walked to the church.
It now appears that the boy got into an argument with his parents Sunday night, that culminated in the deadly shooting, though detectives are still working to comb through the evidence to determine all of the circumstances surrounding the shooting.
Investigators are also looking into Trevor's mental health history, Cook said, according to First Coast News.
In the meantime, he remains in custody on two counts of second-degree murder.
But his best friend, Kyree Beamon, said Trevor's actions Sunday night does not reflect the boy he knows.
He told News 4 Jax that he and Trevor had been friends since elementary school, and played on the same football team.
Just this past Friday, Beamon said, Trevor and his dad gave him a ride to and from practice.
'They were probably the best, or one of the best families I knew,' he said. 'They were funny and they treated me very well. They told me all the time they loved me like a son and they treated me as such.'
The grieving friend went on to tell how he had received a call from Trevor overnight, though he was not sure if that was before or after his longtime friend called 911.
'He told me that he loved me and he told me that he was just calling to tell me good night,' Beamon recounted.
'Trevor isn't a bad person; he made some bad decisions and he will suffer the consequences, but that's not all he was,' he continued. 'He was a great friend, great brother, great son.
'And I'm not going to say Trevor isn't my best friend anymore because the Trevor that did this, I don't know that Trevor and the Trevor that I know, and all of our friends knew, I will continue to be friends with him and I pray that the Trevor that did this died last night.'
Meanwhile, James Lewis, a cousin of Brandi's, described to First Coast News how 'she was a happy person, a good person all around.
'Every time I saw them, [they were] laughing, joking doing family things,' he said.
'My heart breaks for that little boy, obviously tragic incident, for it to get to that point where he felt like it was the only option he had, is the saddest thing you could possibly think of,' neighbor Seth Myers added.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
13 minutes ago
- BBC News
Attempted murder charge over Southampton supermarket attack
A man has been charged with attempted murder after two people were injured and several others were allegedly threatened outside a incident happened outside Aldi on Bevois Valley Road, Southampton, on Sunday at about 12:45 BST. Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary said Azzedvie Mahmoudi of Cobbett Road, Southampton, had been charged with three counts of attempted 46-year-old has also been charged with attempted grievous bodily harm, threatening a person with a blade or sharply pointed article, and possessing a blade or sharp pointed article in a public place. He is due to appear at Southampton Magistrates' Court neighbourhood policing teams have been conducting additional patrols in the area. You can follow BBC Hampshire & Isle of Wight on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.
Reuters
13 minutes ago
- Reuters
US companies spending record amounts to protect executives as threats rise
Aug 5 (Reuters) - U.S. companies are spending record amounts to keep their executives safe in response to rising threats and the killings of two high-profile corporate officials in separate attacks in Manhattan over the last eight months. Corporations have doubled the number of plain-clothed security teams outside buildings in New York City since a shooting last week in which four people were killed, said Glen Kucera, president of the enhanced protection services unit at Allied Universal, a security and facilities services firm. "It's unspeakable. I never knew anyone who was murdered," said Rich Friedman, chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, who previously worked with one of the victims, Blackstone executive Wesley LePatner. Her death shook Wall Street, even though authorities believe her killing was a random event. Police said the shooter was targeting the headquarters of the National Football League, which is housed in the same building in the Midtown area of Manhattan where LePatner worked. The shooter also killed a New York City police officer, building security guard and employee at real estate company Rudin before turning the gun on himself. The attack was "shocking and hits very close to home," Citigroup spokesperson Ed Skyler said in a note to employees a day after the July 28 killings in Midtown. "Understandably, yesterday has also left many of us feeling uneasy," he said, assuring employees that the bank has beefed up security at its Manhattan headquarters over the last year. Threats against executives "have massively ramped up since 2020," said Chris Pierson, the CEO of cybersecurity firm BlackCloak. He noted how the man charged with murdering a Minnesota lawmaker and her husband near Minneapolis in June allegedly kept a target list of mostly other politicians and used online people-search services to find their addresses. Ben Joelson, head of security risk and resilience for the Chertoff Group, a security advisory firm, said threats against executives are higher than at any time in the decade he has worked in the field, with social media posts magnifying complaints against institutional leaders. Artificial intelligence is compounding the problem, leading to an "exponential rise" in realistic phishing attempts, Joelson was cited as saying in a report by research firm Equilar. When UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was shot to death in New York in December, it seemed to be a very rare "black swan event," Joelson told Reuters in an interview. But targeted attacks have continued, including the killings in Minnesota and the shooting deaths of two employees of the Israeli embassy in Washington in May. "It's increasingly acceptable for some bad actors or adversaries to address grievances through violence," which has led many companies to put a new focus on security, Joelson said. Matthew Dumpert, global leader of enterprise security risk management at financial and risk advisory firm Kroll, said a lot of existing and new clients reached out last week following the deadly attack in Midtown. "Several of the outreaches directly to me have been by the executive committees ... whoever owns risk. It's chief legal officers, admin officers, compliance officers, security officers," Dumpert said. He added that several clients that had emergency response projects slated to start later this year have asked him to "put those on the front burner. Start immediately, and let's move forward." Median spending on executive security for top officers including chief executives, chief financial officers and others rose 16% to a record $106,530 last year, according to new data from Equilar, which reviewed financial filings for the 500 largest U.S. public companies by revenue. Security spending includes surveillance and alarm systems for executives' homes, personal guards and cybersecurity protections. Equilar analysts said the trend is likely to continue as firms grapple with the growing threats to their executives and employees. The percentage of executives at those companies with such protection rose to 33.8% from 23.3% over the 2020-2024 period, Equilar said. Nearly a third of CEOs in the group, 32.4%, received security services last year, up from 21.9% in 2020; the value of those CEOs' security perks reached a median $77,976 last year, up from $40,052 in 2020. Tech companies had the biggest growth in implementing security measures for executives, with a 73.5% jump in those receiving the benefits from 2020 to 2024, but communications companies spent the most, at a median value of $1.2 million a year, Equilar found. Blue-chip companies such as Walmart (WMT.N), opens new tab, General Motors (GM.N), opens new tab, American Express (AXP.N), opens new tab, and chipmaker Broadcom (AVGO.O), opens new tab, previously disclosed new or increased security expenses from previous years following Thompson's killing. "The trend is unsurprising considering the broader concerns about executive safety amid geopolitical instability, increasing cyber threats and the high public visibility of top leadership roles," Equilar said in its report.
The Guardian
13 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Spirit Airlines pilot ‘removed from duty' after being arrested on stalking charges
A Spirit Airlines pilot has been 'removed from duty' after being arrested at work at New Orleans's international airport on stalking charges out of Kansas, according to officials. Dominic A Cipolla, 40, was charged with stalking two different people in a criminal complaint dated 11 July, records in the Johnson county courthouse in Olathe, Kansas, show. Officials haven't released much information about the charges against Cipolla, but the dates of birth listed in court documents for his alleged victims indicate that they are approximately 12 and 17 years old. Local law enforcement officers arrested Cipolla in connection with that complaint on 17 July while he was working at Louis Armstrong airport in the New Orleans suburb of Kenner, Louisiana. He was held as a fugitive at a local lockup before being transferred to the Johnson county jail on 2 August. He soon posted a $12,500 bond for his release from custody while awaiting the outcome of the charges against him and was tentatively scheduled to make an initial court appearance on 12 August, records show. When asked about Cipolla on Monday, a spokesperson for Spirit – which is based in Florida and known for its low air fare – said in a statement that the company was 'aware of a matter involving a pilot at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport … which was unrelated to the performance of their job duties'. 'The pilot was removed from duty pending our investigation into the matter,' the airline's statement said. 'And we arranged for another pilot to operate the flight.' Records in Cipolla's case show that the charge he faces in connection with the younger of the two alleged victims is considered a severity level 7 person felony in Kansas, which is a crime that can carry about one to three years in prison under the state's laws. The other charge is considered a class A person misdemeanor, which can carry a fine of up to $2,500 or up to a year in county jail. Cipolla is described as a resident of Kansas City, Missouri, in court records. Kansas City is about 22 miles (35km) north of Olathe. Attempts to contact Cipolla were not immediately successful. A profile under his name at a publicly accessible sales and recruiting platform says Cipolla once served in the US military and joined Spirit in 2022 as a first officer after spending the previous three years in the same role at the Texas regional airline Envoy Air.
