>Family members said the boy was intelligent and manipulative, and said no relative would agree to babysit him. The boy’s sister said he’d had “rage issues” his entire life. When he was four, his his mother’s sister said, he picked up his puppy by the tail and swung it around until it howled in pain. His mother eventually gave the dog away. Six months before the shooting, his sister said, he had filled a balloon with flammable liquid and set it on fire, causing an explosion that burned furniture in the house. She told police that when her mom asked the boy why he did it, he claimed “he has five different imaginary people that talk to him”: two sisters, an old man, an old woman, and a guy who is mean to him who he doesn’t like talking to.
>The boy had been seeing a therapist and had been given a “concerning diagnosis,” his sister told police. His mother was receiving daily updates on his behavior in school and had put up cameras in the house to monitor him. Two weeks before the shooting, she told the boy’s sister someone had unplugged the cameras.
>The morning after the shooting, the boy logged onto his dead mother’s Amazon account and ordered an Oculus Virtual Reality Headset. The aunt said that when he saw his grandmother crying later that day, he said, “I’m really sorry for what happened. I’m sorry for killing my mom,” then asked if his Amazon package had arrived.