A 12-year-old girl confessed to stabbing her nine-year-old brother on the night of January 5 in the St. Thomas Square community south of downtown Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Tulsa police received the call to respond to the home right before midnight and found paramedics already there.
The parents said that they had been sleeping, and assumed their children were tucked in and safe, until their daughter came into their room and told them she had just stabbed her younger brother to death.
The paramedics performed CPR on the young boy before rushing him to a nearby hospital.
The boy was immediately taken into surgery, but he was pronounced dead at around 2:30 am on Friday, January 6.
Police took the 12-year-old girl into custody, and she remained at the Family Center for Juvenile Justice in Tulsa. The Tulsa Police Child Crisis Unit will be investigating the murder.
Richard Meulenberg, Tulsa Police Captain, said that intent was the most important factor in how the case of the young girl would be handled.
Oklahoma state law allows for law enforcement to hold minors for up to five working days before filing a petition in court that would outline their allegations.
Even though Oklahoma law prohibits children 12 and under from being detained, it makes exceptions for children suspected of committing felony crimes and in instances where police think children might be a danger to themselves or others.
State law only allows children over the age of 13 to be tried as adults for allegations of murder.
Lamenting the sad incident, Tulsa Police Department Chief Wendell Franklin said, “All homicides are tragic, but the second homicide of 2023 in Tulsa shows a definitive societal problem. The question is, how does society address a child killing another child?”