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.
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