This article is more than 11 years old

This article is more than 11 years old

An 11-year-old American boy has been charged with killing his father's pregnant girlfriend with his hunting gun as she lay in bed at the family farmhouse in Pennsylvania.

Jordan Brown is alleged to have shot 26-year-old Kenzie Marie Houk, who was eight months pregnant, before catching the school bus on Friday morning, according to the Lawrence County district attorney, John Bongivengo.

Her family and friends said there had been tensions between her and the boy.

"There was an issue with jealousy," said Kenzie Marie's brother-in-law, Jason Kraner, 34.

Bongivengo said Jason was charged with criminal homicide and the criminal homicide of an unborn child and was being held in Lawrence County jail. A preliminary hearing is set for Thursday.

The case has highlighted growing concerns about children's access to firearms.

The fifth-grader was picked up from school on Friday by Pennsylvania state police after they found Kenzie Marie's body. Her four-year-old daughter had told tree cutters on the property that she thought her mother was dead, Bongivengo said.

On Saturday, Jordan told police he had seen a suspicious black truck, causing investigators to look into a false lead for about five hours.

Inconsistencies in Jason's description of the vehicle led police to re-interview the victim's seven-year-old daughter, who implicated the boy in the killing, the attorney said.

"She didn't actually eyewitness the shooting. She saw him with what she believed to be a shotgun and heard a loud bang," Bongivengo said. He said the shotgun was found in what police believed was the boy's bedroom.

The youth model 20-gauge shotgun, which is said to have belonged to Jordan, is designed for children and such weapons do not have to be registered.

Jordan's attorney, Dennis Elisco, said the evidence pointed to the gunshot wound being "consistent" with the boy's hunting gun, but he wanted to see stronger proof.

"I believe Jordan did not do this and I'm looking forward to seeing the physical evidence to see if it matches with what I think happened," he said after talking to the boy in jail.

Police said they had no motive for the shooting, and Bongivengo would not say whether the boy confessed.

"An 11-year-old kid, what would give him the motive to shoot someone?" Kenzie Marie's father, Jack, asked. "Maybe he was just jealous of my daughter and the baby and thought he would be overpowered."

Jack Houk said the boy and his father used to practise shooting behind their farmhouse and the pair enjoyed hunting together.

He said he did not know of any recent problems between the boy and his daughter, but there had been "some tension" in the beginning. Houk said his daughter had been working hard to forge a relationship with the boy.