Teen Confessed Shooting His Sleeping Mom in the Head After She Took Away His Cellphone

A teenager was arrested and charged with murder after he took his mom's handgun and shot her in the head while she was asleep in their home.

Police said Shawn Tyler Willis, 17, was upset with his mother for punishing him by taking away his cellphone, according to a newly released juvenile court petition.

Law and Crime reported that Willis was charged with first-degree murder for the death of his mother, Sandy K. Willis.

Detective Don Scuglia of the Anderson County Sheriff's Department, who authored the juvenile court petition, said deputies responded to a call about an unresponsive female lying at the bedside in a home at Rocky Top, Tennessee in April 2020.

Teen Kills Mom For Taking Away His Cellphone

First-responders who arrived at the scene noted that Sandy had been killed while lying in her bed. The cause of her death seemed to be a fatal close-range gunshot wound at the left side of her head.

Records said the teen was an Anderson County High School junior at the time, WBIR reported. Previously, Shawn Tyler Willis was detained at the Richard L. Bean Juvenile Service Center.

But right now, he is kept in the Anderson County Jail as an adult, with a $1 million bond, said County Sheriff's Department spokesman Tyler Mayes.

The teen has reportedly called his girlfriend to say that his mother was in bed with blood on her. Willis' girlfriend's father arrived at home and checked Sandy, whom he found was already dead.

Shawn Tyler Willis gave numerous stories that were conflicting as to what happened. However, he was interviewed by a detective in this case, where he admitted to shooting his mom in the head while she was asleep.

The petition stated that Willis had taken the pistol downstairs to hide the sound of loading it and returned back upstairs to his mom's room.

He then walked around the victim's bed, positioned himself beside the bed, and shot her at close range on the left side of her head. Sandy Willis reportedly suffered two gunshots to the head.

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Parricide Cases

A 2014 Federal Bureau of Investigation data showed that 169 people were killed by family members younger than themselves, KWQC reported. However, the data does not distinguish the exact relationship.

The data further noted that there were over 14,000 murders across the U.S., and parricide was only a small fraction.

A 2008 study tried to find answers about parricide, and its authors said the number of parricides is very consistent with most of the murders caused by an argument.

The authors also suggested that the numbers of juveniles killing their parents declined from the early 1980s despite more of these stories being reported by the media.

Improved awareness of child abuse may have helped keep the number of juvenile murders steady by getting state services to these children, the study's authors said.

A study from the University of Georgia further noted that children kill their parents due to several factors, including their own mental illness, own victimization, or seeing someone they loved be victimized.

READ MORE: Colorado School Shooter Devon Erickson Sentenced to Spend Over a Thousand Years in Prison for 2019 Shooting

This article is owned by Latin Post

Written by: Mary Webber

WATCH: What's Behind the Sharp Rise in Murders Across the U.S.? - From PBS NewsHour