LEWISTON, Idaho — Warning: This story contains descriptions of violence towards children and may be disturbing to some. Reader discretion is advised.
Two 14-year-olds from Lewiston accused of shooting the male suspect's stepfather and 11-year-old stepsister reportedly planned to kill the victims just hours before shooting and seriously injuring them, according to a probable cause affidavit.
The two teenage suspects were arrested on Monday and charged with attempted first-degree murder. KREM 2 is not naming the two suspects due to their age but Lewiston police said they are being charged as adults.
Lewiston police officers responded to reports of shots fired at an apartment complex at approximately 5:30 p.m. on Monday. When they arrived, they located an 11-year-old girl and her father, both of whom were shot.
According to the affidavit, the father told Officer Will Thompson that his stepson, who was later identified as the 14-year-old male suspect, had shot him and had previously expressed desire to kill the 11-year-old girl, who was later identified as the male suspect's stepsister.
Thompson said he saw a pink pistol laying outside the apartment near where the 11-year-old girl was found.
The affidavit said Officer Conor McCullough was en route to the scene when he received a description of the two teenage suspects. The male suspect was wearing a red-pink shirt and black shorts, and the female suspect had pink hair and was wearing a purple shirt.
McCullough located the teens not far from the scene of the shooting and detained them without incident. The teens were then taken to the Lewiston Police Department (LPD) for questioning.
According to the affidavit, the male suspect told police that he and the female suspect began planning to shoot his stepfather and stepsister at approximately 5:30 p.m. that day. The male suspect told police they made the plan because his stepfather told him he was not allowed to go to the park.
The two teenage suspects reportedly planned for the female suspect to distract the male suspect's mother by asking to speak to her privately. Once the mother was distracted, the two then planned for the male suspect to grab his mother's pistol from the top of the refrigerator, according to documents.
The male suspect then reportedly told the female suspect that the plan was becoming "tedious" because his stepfather would not go outside to smoke, which would allow the female suspect to then distract the mother.
At that point, documents say the suspects decided to change that plan. Shortly after, the mother and stepfather went outside of the apartment, which allowed the female suspect to distract the 11-year-old while the male suspect retrieved the pistol from the top of the fridge.
The teens then reportedly discussed the plan further after the male suspect retrieved the pistol. The affidavit says the male suspect did not want to carry out the plan anymore, but the female suspect did. Therefore, the male suspect allegedly decided to continue.
The male suspect told detectives that the original plan was for him to shoot his stepfather and for the female suspect to shoot his stepsister. However, the teens switched because the female suspect "did not have anything against" the stepsister, according to documents.
The male suspect had already chambered a round in the pistol and handed it to the female suspect. He then watched her walk downstairs and aim it at the stepfather, who was seated on a bed watching a YouTube video. He told detectives that he went behind a wall and covered his ears before hearing a gunshot. Documents say he then retrieved the pistol from the female suspect.
Once he had the pistol, the male suspect went to the kitchen and found his stepfather holding his neck and screaming for his wife, the male suspect's mother, to call an ambulance. He told detectives that he saw blood on the kitchen floor and believed that his stepfather had been shot.
The male suspect then shot his stepfather two or three more times before turning the gun on his stepsister, according to documents. He told detectives he fired a shot at his stepsister but missed and struck the sliding glass door in the kitchen.
Documents say the male suspect told police that he could not keep shooting at his stepsister because his mother was in the way. The male suspect ran out the front door and found his stepsister screaming and running. He then shot her twice more, causing her to fall to the ground before throwing the pistol at her and hitting her in the abdomen.
The male suspect told detectives that he only stopped shooting at his step-sister "because he believed he was out of bullets," according to the affidavit. He then told police that he and the female suspect intended to kill his stepfather and stepsister, claiming that his stepfather was verbally abusive and that his stepsister was constantly getting him in trouble.
He also told detectives that his stepsister "stresses his mother" and that his stepfather "makes his mother cry, which he did not like."
When asked if he regretted shooting his stepsister, the male suspect said he "regretted not killing her." He also told detectives that he regretted shooting his stepfather because "he probably would have bled out from the gunshot" fired by the female suspect. He said if he would have spent more time aiming at his stepsister instead of shooting his stepfather, both he and the female suspect could have gotten "confirmed kills."
The female suspect reiterated the male suspect's statement that they had planned the shooting earlier that afternoon, stating that the stepfather "is kind of a D." She also said that after the male suspect shot his stepfather, she heard him yell for her to run, which she did.
Documents say the female suspect ran from the home and saw the stepsister laying outside. She said it appeared that the young girl had been shot in the leg.
Staff at St. Joseph Regional Medical Center confirmed that the stepfather had a bullet wound through his neck and jaw and another one through his torso. Staff also told police that the stepsister had two bullet wounds to her legs.
The male suspect is charged with two counts of attempted first-degree murder and the female suspect is charged with one count of attempted first-degree murder. Both suspects are currently in police custody.