11-year-old boy who killed girl, 8 for refusing to let him play with puppies found guilty of first-degree murder

The young boy who killed 8-year-old MaKayla Dyer with a shotgun on the Tennessee trailer park where they both lived has been found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to state custody until he turns 19.

The judge’s order, posted online by local television station WATE-TV, said the state should use all reasonable resources to determine why the boy shot the girl, and added he should be treated and rehabilitated so this never happens again.

"A child who commits first-degree murder cannot be willy-nilly turned loose into society." Judge Dennis Roach wrote.

According to his description of events, on October 3, 2015, MaKayla and her sister were playing outside and talking to the boy while he sat at his bedroom window on the mobile home site in the town of White Pine. He then asked the sisters to go get their puppies and when they refused he went to get a 12-gauge shotgun and a BB gun and told the girls he had guns.

McKayla is said to have laughed at him and responded that the guns weren't real. The boy "then made certain the gun was loaded, cocked the hammer on the gun and shot the victim just above the heart at a downward trajectory," Judge Roach wrote. The girl fell backward, "quickly lost consciousness, and was later confirmed dead," he added. "The mother of the child knelt on the ground and picked her up, placing her child in her arms as she passed away."