A teenage boy described by teachers and neighbors as "a little angel" appeared before a juvenile court in Normandy on Thursday accused of shooting dead his father, mother and baby brother, one by one, and seriously wounding his sister.
The 15-year-old, identified only as Pierre, has confessed to a two-hour killing spree last year during which he waited calmly for each member of the family to return home before firing on them with his father's shotgun. In between the shootings he sat on the sofa and watched a video of the film Shrek.
According to court documents, on Wednesday Oct. 27 last year Pierre, who had an essay to finish, stayed at home after lunch while his father, a boilermaker, returned to work, his mother Lydie and four-year-old brother Louis went out to shop, and his sister Marion, 11, attended a dance class. French children do not go to school on Wednesdays.
He told police later that it was at that moment that he had "the idea of killing" his parents. He was fed up, he said, with being "badly treated," especially by his mother, who had forbidden him to go out and play football that afternoon because of his essay. Court appointed experts have said the parents were "relatively strict" but reasonable and loving.
Pierre, who was 14 at the time, loaded his father's shotgun and sat down to watch the film. At 3pm his mother and Louis came home. He shot and killed Lydie as she walked past the front door, then took his baby brother upstairs and gave him some paper and crayons so he would keep quiet.
An hour and a half later his sister came home and Pierre shot and seriously injured her, leaving her slumped in the hallway. Hearing Louis howling in fright at the top of the stairs, the teenager took aim and shot him dead too. He then returned to the sofa and continued watching Shrek.
When at 5pm his father, Thierry, returned from work, Pierre got to his feet and fired two rounds into him at point-blank range. He then grabbed a rucksack, left the shotgun in the hallway, went out, locking the front door and throwing the key into the pond, and climbed on his bike.
A verdict was expected on Friday.
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