A 15-year-old girl in Florida shot and killed her mother's fiancé while he was in bed, according to authorities.
The teenager is being charged with first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder, according to the Escambia County Sheriff's Office.
The shooting occurred at about 7 a.m. ET on Wednesday at the Essex Pointe Apartments on E Johnson Avenue in Pensacola, local news station WEAR-TV reported.
Sheriff Chip Simmons said the girl was talking to her mother and mother's fiancé as they were lying in bed, then suddenly pulled out a gun and fired at them.
"The 15-year-old entered the room, had some small talk with her mother and her mother's fiancé and then shots were fired," he said.
The girl reportedly narrowly missed her mother, but struck her mother's fiancé. The mother was grazed in the head by bullets.
"According to the mother, there was no argument, no disturbance," Simmons said. "She just pulled out a handgun and started firing at them while they were in bed."
The mother's 35-year-old fiancé was taken to an area hospital, where he died of his wounds. His name has not been released.
Authorities said the girl fled the scene in her mother's vehicle and went to her boyfriend's home. Simmons said deputies arrived at the home in the 1200 block of Rio Grande Circle and took her into custody.
According to the Pensacola News Journal, the Office of the State Attorney will determine if they will charge the girl as an adult. She did not have a case file in adult criminal court as of Wednesday afternoon, according to the newspaper.
She is being held in the Escambia Juvenile Detention Center.
Newsweek has reached out to the Escambia County Sheriff's Office and the Office of the State Attorney via email for further comment.
Wednesday's shooting comes after four members of a family, including two children, were found shot dead in an apparent murder-suicide in Allen, Texas on Monday amid the country's gun violence epidemic. On Saturday, a 21-year-old white man gunned down three Black people in a racist attack in Jacksonville, Florida.
There have been more than than 28,000 gun deaths—including almost 1,200 people aged 17 or under—in the country so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which tracks shootings.
Shootings have also left more than 25,000 people injured.
Update 08/31/23, 9:11 a.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.
Update 08/31/23, 10:20 a.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.
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