14 Year Old Kills Twin in Fight Over Gum

You read it right. That's gum, not gun. The two fraternal twins got into an argument over a pack of gum, one grabbed a steak knife and plunged it into the chest of the other, apparently, mortally wounding the other. The surviving twin had stayed home from school because of an illness and when the other twin arrived at home, the fight ensued. The children's mother was in the home at the time.



The magnitude of this tragedy cannot be understated, what with one twin dead and the other facing first-degree murder charges along with the repercussions through out the community.

The reader comments attached to the article provide rare insight to this case as friends of the family have provided a different take on the case than the media and law enforcement has.

I think the case itself and the reader comments provide considerable fuel for discussion relative to home, family, and community.

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[edit on 2006/10/20 by GradyPhilpott]

Grady the link is not working..............I have tried to load it 3 times now.....

This is such a horrible event it makes my entire body ache, and my eyes fill with tears. How COULD he DO this to his brother????

I wish the link was working.

Thanks for the heads up.

TinyURL!™ to the rescue. Let me know if that doesn't work for you and I'll try something else.

Grady


[edit on 2006/10/20 by GradyPhilpott]

This is very sad. The surviving twin will never believe it when he'll know what he did... he'll be so sad... killing his own twin... I think this is enough for a sentence... And if it was really an accident, I hope he doesn't go to jail, and that he have all the help he needed because if not, he'll probably suicide...

[edit on 20-10-2006 by Vitchilo]

People really need to look at what the people are saying about the media and how they have made this story their own for NEWS reasons. None of us know the real story yet only the way some reporter has spun it just like all news in this country. Yellow Journalisim has a new name these days and it is Fox,Cnn,CBS,NBC,ABC

I doubt that the surviving twin meant to kill his brother so I don't see the point of the Murder 1st charge; nor from the comments I read the point of moving it to adult court. If there is more to the story that might change my mind but at this point it seems more accidental then anything else.

My prayers go out to the family I hope they are all receiving counseling.

Heat of the moment, words exchanged, and...

Is there anyone to blame here? This kid has just killed half of himself. I've always thought that twins are two halves of the same soul. To kill your twin, whether he meant to or not, is tantamount to killing yourself. His punishment is already underway...and will last the rest of his life. Anything the courts do is, and will be, redundant.

As for the media...bad news sells. Really bad news sells even better.

Seagull, good point, I also feel that twins have a special closeness. My husband is an identical twin and has told me that there is a love/hate relationship between most twins. Also, it's more common for a twin to kill his twin than for other types of sibling murders. When you think about it, your twin is your shadow. When you see your twin doing somekthing that is part of your shadow and you haven't dealt with it, it makes you angry, because you see yourself doing the same thing, kind of like a mirror. There is extreme closeness and intimacy between twins, but the flip side is that there are also many angry feelings, hostility, etc. My husband lived with his twin until they were 30 and at that time they both realized, quite seriously, that if they kept sharing a home together, that one would eventually murder the other. That is why they spent the next 20 years living on opposite sides of the U.S. and only visited one another a couple times during that period. Lots of animosity, but also, when the chips are down, they are there for each other. They also in the past have had pretty big arguments, threatening each other's lives with knives, etc. I can imagine that this would just have gotten out of hand and that the boy never meant to kill his twin. And like the previous poster said, living without his twin for the rest of his life, is the worst kind of punishment; as someone said, you've killed half of yourself. What a great, deep tragedy for that entire community.

I feel so sorry for the surviving twin! I have twin nieces, one of which died and the surviving one has never recovered. I cannot imagine the suffering the surviving twin will put himself through for the rest of his life.

So terribly sad...

My thoughts are with this family...