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Background: The home in Cheyenne, Wyo., where Theresa McIntosh was allegedly shot by her son on March 7 (Google Maps). Inset: Theresa McIntosh (Facebook).
A young resident of Wyoming is set to face adult charges after authorities reported that he fatally shot his mother with her firearm, which he had taken a week prior following a dispute over poor academic performance.
The Laramie County Sheriff’s Office disclosed that the tragic incident unfolded in a Cheyenne home on the afternoon of March 7. Deputies arrived at the scene to discover 41-year-old Theresa McIntosh with a gunshot wound at the back of her head. Although she was still breathing, she was unconscious and required immediate airlifting to a Colorado hospital. Unfortunately, she succumbed to her injuries on March 8.
On March 10, officials announced the detention of a juvenile at the location of the incident. The boy has since been identified as 14-year-old Havoc Leone. Initially, Leone claimed that his mother had taken her own life, but he later revised his account, according to police reports.
Court documents obtained by Cowboy State Daily reveal that Leone allegedly admitted to investigators that he shot his mother while she was engaged in a puzzle on the floor, delivering a single fatal shot to her head. The teenager confessed to being consumed by anger at the moment, expressing his inability to convey his feelings of hatred because he felt misunderstood by her, as per police statements.
Leone reportedly informed authorities that McIntosh had verbally insulted him and that he harbored thoughts of killing her whenever she forced him to do tasks against his will.
A week before the deadly shooting, Leone and his mother reportedly fought over him getting a D in math. Reacting to the argument, Leone allegedly stole his mother’s Taurus 9 mm from her vehicle and had hid it in one of his boots in his bedroom.
On the day of the shooting, McIntosh and her common-law husband, who is Leone’s father, fought with the teenager after suspecting him of stealing a tablet from one of his mother’s cleaning clients, police said.
McIntosh allegedly called Leone a “thief” and claimed that he was mentally handicapped.
According to court documents, McIntosh ordered Leone to hand over the tablet password, which was written in a notebook in his room. Police said when he got the notebook, he also got his mother’s 9 mm.
Leone allegedly told police that he threw the notebook at his mother, who was on the floor doing a puzzle. He said she continued to yell at him while she was bent down to get either the notebook or the tablet. While she was turned away from him, he told police he pointed the gun with both hands and pulled the trigger, hitting his mother in the back of the head.
Leone’s father, who was in the basement playing video games while wearing noise-canceling headphones, told police that he heard a popping sound. When he went to the bedroom where he knew McIntosh was doing her puzzle, he saw Leone, who allegedly said, “I don’t know, it just went off.”
After Leone’s father called 911, he went to render aid to McIntosh, who was “unresponsive with blood and ‘brains’ all over the place.” While holding a towel to McIntosh’s head wound, he noticed that her gun was on the floor. He told police that it was unexpected, because he knew she kept it in her vehicle.
While Leone’s father was being questioned, he knew what his son allegedly did, but did not “want to think what I think happened.” He later told investigators, “I understand, but I don’t want to f—ing say it. Yes, I understand that it’s a possibility, but I really hope it’s not. It’d be a lot easier to accept that she killed herself than my son tried to kill her.”
Leone was charged as an adult with first-degree murder. Local news outlet Oil City News reported that he is being held on $500,000 bond and is scheduled to appear in court on March 18.