Left inset: Steven Merkel (Walworth County Sheriff’s Office). Right inset: Steven Merkel’s 8-year-old son Michael Meagher (GoFundMe). Background: The residence where Steven Merkel allegedly shot his stepson (WITI/YouTube).
A man in Wisconsin confessed to the fatal shooting of his 8-year-old stepson during an attempt to impress him by showing off his firearms, according to local authorities.
Steven Merkel, 53, from Lake Geneva, pleaded guilty to first-degree reckless homicide related to the death of his stepson, Michael Meagher, at a home on Lincoln Drive in Walworth County on Jan. 20, as reported by the Town of Geneva Police Department and the Walworth County District Attorney’s Office.
“Merkel asserted that the shooting was accidental when police discovered Michael Meagher mortally injured inside Merkel’s residence,” stated Geneva town supervisor Scott Williams in a statement released on Facebook following Merkel’s guilty plea in Walworth County Circuit Court.
Geneva police officers and fire personnel arrived at the scene around 2:25 a.m., where they found Michael with a single gunshot wound, according to a Jan. 20 press release. Despite “life-saving measures” being administered, the boy tragically passed away at a nearby hospital.
During police questioning, Merkel appeared “frantic and was covered in blood,” as stated in the criminal complaint acquired by Milwaukee Fox affiliate WITI.
Merkel later told cops that “he did something stupid, and it wasn’t (Meagher’s) fault” that he got shot. When police asked him why he was showing Michael the guns, Merkel told them “because it made the defendant look cool,” the complaint stated.
Merkel claimed he took the magazine out of the 9 mm handgun that killed Michael and was under the impression that it wouldn’t fire without it, per police.
“He walked out of the bedroom and pointed the gun at (Meagher),” the complaint said, according to WITI. “The defendant stated that the defendant pulled the trigger and was expecting it to click, but instead it went ‘boom,’ shooting (Meagher).”
Merkel admitted to cops that he had pulled out his handgun to show Meagher before in the past — even pointing it down toward him while ordering him to listen, the complaint alleged. Cops said he “drank two little drinks of rum and RC that evening” before the shooting.
A GoFundMe was launched for Michael’s family by one of his friends’ parents, which described the incident as a “very traumatic accident,” per the description.
“Michael was 8 years old & a bright funny boy!” the description said. “My son loved his friend.”
Merkel is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 20.
