US boy,11, shoots girl, 8, over puppy

Latasha Dyer says her daughter was playing outside when the boy asked to see her puppy. Little McKayla said "no," and shortly after was shot in the chest.

Latasha Dyer told WATE 6 news in a video posted on the station's website Sunday when they first moved to White Pine, the little boy was bullying McKayla.

"He was making fun of her, calling her names, just being mean to her. I had to go the principal about him and he quit for a while and then all of a sudden yesterday he shot her," she said.

Dyer was overcome with emotion as she spoke to the local television station from the front steps of a home in White Pine, Tennessee.

"I want her back in my arms, this is not fair. Hold and kiss your babies every night because you’re never promised the next day with them.

 "I hope the little boy learned his lesson because he took my baby’s life and I can’t get her back," she said.

She described her daughter as a precious little girl.

"She was a mommy’s girl, no matter how bad of a mood you were in she could always make you smile," she said. 

Jefferson County Sheriff, Bud McCoig says the boy has been charged with first degree murder.

A judge ordered him held in a juvenile detention centre until the next hearing, which is set for October 28.

"It's a tragic incident we've had that an 11-year-old would take an eight-year-old's life.

"The small town near Knoxville is reeling, but the local school and churches have stepped up to help people come to grips with the shocking instance," he said.

McCoig says the boy was inside his home when he shot the girl with his father's 12-gauge shotgun at about 7.30pm on Saturday.

McGoig has said at a press conference the two were neighbours and in this neighbourhood all the children would play together and knew each other and all attended school together.

McCoig has declined to release any further details, explaining that five other children live in the boy's home and two other children live in the girl's home and are trying to protect them, as much as they have been hurt by this tragedy.

"Our prayers are with the families that are involved in the tragic incident," he said.

Neighbor Chasity Arwood was watching football when she heard a shot ring out and was horrified to see the little girl bleeding to death in the grass.

"That weapon should have been under lock and key, or at least out of hand's reach.

"Trying to comfort her mama and her aunt and her grandma, and her grandpa and her sister and her brother: it's the hardest thing I've ever done," he said. 

Neighbours who were caring for the family's puppies say they seemed to be looking for the girl. 

One could be seen laying morosely next to a makeshift memorial of balloons, flowers and stuffed animals on the steps of the family's mobile home.

(File photo)