An 11-year-old Pennsylvania boy has been charged with homicide in the death of his father.
According to court documents, Pennsylvania state troopers said that they heard Clayton Deitz tell his mother, Julia, “I killed Daddy,” according to WGAL-TV.
Douglas Dietz, 42, was found shot to death in his family’s Duncannon Borough home on Tuesday. Police said he was shot in the head.
Court documents said Julia Dietz told police she was awakened by a loud noise and tried to awaken her husbad who was next to her, but he did not stir.
Julia Dietz said she heard what she thought was water dripping, but realized when she turned on a light that it was blood.
Clayton then entered the bedroom and said, “Daddy’s dead.”
Court documents said that the couple went to bed after celebrating Clayton’s birthday, which had been marred for the child by being told to go to bed and having his Nintendo Switch taken away.
According to the court documents, the couple went to bed shortly after midnight after singing happy birthday to Clayton.
“When his dad told him he needed to go to bed, he got mad at him,” court documents said.
This is where we are at as a society…
This is the 2nd case like this I have seen.
Take away a kids gaming device and they just may kill you.
An 11 killed his Dad for taking his Nintendo Switch. He shot him with a gun that was in the house all over not getting his way.… pic.twitter.com/BhrL1BY7Tf
— Jennifer Coffindaffer (@CoffindafferFBI) January 16, 2026
The boy told police, “I shot somebody,” according to the report.
“He admitted that he had someone in mind whom he was going to shoot, whom he identified as his father,” court documents said.
The gun was taken from a locked gun safe. Julia Dietz denied knowing where the key was stored. The boy said he found the key in his father’s drawer and unlocked the safe.
Court documents said the boy admitted “removing the gun from the safe, loading bullets into it and walking over to his father’s side of the bed. He pulled back the hammer and fired the gun at his father.”
David Stuckey, who identified himself as a family friend, said Clayton, whom the family adopted in 2018, has autism, according to WGAL-TV.
He said the boy’s condition had worsened in 2025.
Stuckey said he wrote a letter to the Susquenita School District asking to have the child placed in a behavioral education center, citing incidents that went back to May 2024.
The letter said that the district had been asked to move Clayton by other parents, as well as his own mother and father.
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