A 12-year-old girl has been arrested after allegedly stabbing her 9-year-old brother to death, police said.
The incident occurred late Friday night when the Tulsa Police Riverside Division in Oklahoma received a call at approximately 11:43 p.m. regarding a reported stabbing in the 1000 block of 64th Place South in the southern part of the city, according to a statement released by authorities.
The Tulsa Police Department said that once they arrived on the scene, paramedics and Tulsa firefighters were already performing CPR to the 9-year-old stabbing victim.
“Officers learned the children’s parent was upstairs asleep when the 12-year-old daughter woke the parent up and said that she had stabbed her 9-year-old brother,” the Tulsa Police Department said. “The 9-year-old male victim was rushed to the hospital and taken into surgery. Unfortunately, he succumbed to his injuries shortly after 2:30 a.m.”
Tulsa Police Department Chief Wendell Franklin didn’t mince his words when he announced the tragic killing on social media.
“All homicides are tragic, but the 2nd homicide of 2023 in Tulsa shows a definitive societal problem,” Chief Franklin said. “The question is, how does society address a child killing another child?”
The unnamed 12-year-old suspect was subsequently taken into custody and is currently being held at the Family Center for Juvenile Justice, police said.
The motivation of the stabbing is currently unclear but the Tulsa Police Child Crisis Unit in handling the investigation.
No charges have been filed yet in this case but Oklahoma law says that any child under the age of 13 cannot be prosecuted as an adult for felony allegations of murder.