America reels as 11 year old is convicted of murdering girl, 8

8 year old shooting victim, MaKayla Dyer
8 year old shooting victim, MaKayla Dyer

An 11-year-old boy has been found guilty of murdering an eight-year-old girl after she and her sister refused to let him see their pet puppies.

Foreign news reports say that judge Dennis Roach found the boy guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced him to custody in Tennessee until he turns 19, earlier this week .

The judge said the state should “use all reasonable resources” to determine why the boy had shot the girl and that he should receive the necessary treament to avoid this ever happening again.

“A child who commits first-degree murder cannot be willy-nilly turned loose into society,” Roach wrote.

A spokesman for the Tenessee department of children's services said the boy, who has been identified by US media, was currently in detention and being evaluated.

The boy, who has five siblings, and victim, eight-year-old MaKayla Dyer, lived in the same trailer park in Tenessee. MaKayla, her 11-year-old sister and another girl, also 11, were playing outside and talking to the boy while he was sitting at his bedroom window on 3 October 2015.

He had asked the sisters to fetch their puppies and when they refused, he retrieved a 12-gauge shotgun and a BB gun and told the girls he had guns. According to the judge’s description of the events, McKayla laughed at him and responded that the guns were not real.

The boy , who had been trained in firearm safety and had hunted with his father and grandfather, “then made certain the gun was loaded, cocked the hammer on the gun and shot the victim just above the heart at a downward trajectory”, the judge wrote.

The girl fell backward, “quickly lost consciousness, and was later confirmed dead”, the judge wrote, adding that three witnesses saw McKayla within one minute after she was shot.

“The mother of the child knelt on the ground and picked her up, placing her child in her arms as she passed away.”