I tend to agree with the RAD suggestion as a diagnosis. Definitely PTSD and oppositional defiant disorder/conduct disorder. Maybe more - and I read that there were meds involved. Thoughts???

Additionally, there is nothing in the DSM-IV-TR that precludes RAD as a possible DX for this child. Even having lived with his father since birth, criterion for the condition of RAD is “associated with grossly pathological care that may take the form of persistent disregard of the child’s basic emotional needs for comfort, stimulation and affection…” There is no stipulation stated in the DSM-IV that the child cannot live with the bio parent or must have been spent a specified quantity time in a non-nurturing living environment in order to qualify for this disorder.

Hopefully, this child receives appropriate and on-going psy. help. No matter what, he will need to deal with the fact that his family is no longer living.

I can see an 8 yr old innocently killing someone only in that they don’t really get “dead” (not typical children, anyway) Thats the age where the smooshed cat in the road is endless fasination….flushing the goldfish is a wonder. This boy had training with a gun. His father had taught him how to use one. I wonder if he just didn’t get carried away with speculation and ended up shooting not once, but twice trying to really get the answer to “do guns kill? ” I wonder if he really didn’t get the difference between HIS actions and teh actions of the gun?

I keep looking for teh results of the mental health report….that would be the end all …was he mentally stable? or was he, as you suggest, RAD/bipolar/borderline personality disordered or some such. My gut instinct is to say “any kid who kills his dad is mentally unstable” but then being a teacher and parent (of SN kids) I also wonder if this was just something that went too far.

I have step-children with attachment disorders from a mother who used drugs while pregnant and then couldn’t care for them during the first years of their lives and yes, an 8-year old CAN manipulate! I have been hospitalized twice at the hand of my step-son while he was just barely 12 and his sister just tried to break my arm too. I have never so much as raised my hand against these kids - I have set down boundaries about daily rules but my step-daughter at 11 already used sex to manipulate men and on her own was drinking and experimenting with sex and she and her brothers hid it WELL from their dad before we married and she bragged to my daughter about her behavior. Before having to parent children who are RAD (reactive attachment disordered) I would have given my last breath to say all children are innocent. I now know better. If someone wants to tell me to give these kids to a home where they will “really” be loved - give me your address - they can live with you!!!

They have referred to this as a “henious crime” - if it was daily abuse then there was no crime at all - merely self defense - and this kid needs to be exonerated in the criminal sense. Sorry about the other guy, but I expect that his presence in the home and failure to protect the child make him guilty in the boy’s eyes. A good case to compare this to is the Cody Posey case - but that kid was much older than this one!

As for the poster here who has bad kids in your home - please give them to someone else who does not have such an evil attitude about children. It sounds like you are overwhelmed and incapable of understanding the difference between an 8 year old and a teenager. The developmental differences are huge - an 8 year old does not manipulate anyone - I have known plenty in my day - some better behaved than others - but adults are quite capable of handling themselves among such tiny little people.

There is a reason why no other civilized nation in the world permits the criminal prosecution of anyone less than 10 - these people simply lack the reasoning to understand and appreciate the nature and consequences of their actions in a way necessary to form criminal intent. They might know how to fire a gun and kill, but that is not the same thing as having a criminal mindset.

This child was taught how to kill other creatures by a brutish man. The man is dead. God will judge him and I expect that he may find the judgment very hot. And if the other dead man knew the kid was being abused and “minded his own business”, he will find things pretty hot as well. As for the step mother and grandparents, parish priest and teachers who apparently knew of the abuse and did nothing - some need to be fired and some need to be prosecuted.

I proof posts for basic spelling errors before I publish buts its only after I read them a day later that I see where my attempt at expressing one emotion often reads quite differently.

during personal conversation or video other people pick up facial and body expression, The tone of a voice to discern the speakers intent, not always possible in blogging.

For the record I think the deaths were a tragedy and wish they could have been avoided.

Our pediatrician warned us several years ago that these kids really don’t have a sense of cause and effect, and some really don’t have a conscience. He basiclly told me that we are in for a rough ride and there is little that can be done to help. Yes, we have a social worker working with the most problemic child and counselors have also worked with him. But those are band-aides to serious issues, and for years we tried to do it on our own, not fully understanding the depth of the problems.

This little boy was only 8-years-old. This father might have still been trying to do it on his own, without the help of social services, because he might not have fully understood the depth of the problems either.

http://dyinginindiancountry.blogspot.com/

I have legal custody of four kids in addition to my birth five. All four of the kids by legal custody have fetal alcohol affects and two were born with crack in their blood. They are all very good at lying and appearing believable. One has been diagnosed with attachment disorder as well as oppositional issues. I don’t doubt he’s capable of hurting someone and blaming it on the other person. He is constantly blaming the other eight kids and whoever else gets in his way for everything that goes wrong. If he’s not allowed to go hang out with friends because he had been suspended from school, he will destroy something of mine and then tell others it was my fault for not letting him go out. He will not acknowledge to himself that maybe he shouldn’t have done what he did at school that got the teachers and principal upset. He won’t accept that discipline is a consequence of bad behavior.

When I read this story I did believe he could have done this and then blame it on his father, who might very well have been simply spanking every now and then for doing things that needed discipline. If he was an angry and defiant young man, which his grandma indicates he might have been, he could very well - as his Grandma said - have done this.

And listening to him on the tape - yes, I believe the police are correct.

http://dyinginindiancountry.blogspot.com/

Kevin R. Tipple

“By The Light Of The Moon”
The Carpathian Shadows Volume 2
http://www.booksforabuck.com/sfpages/sf_08/carpathian_shadows2.html