In a chilling turn of events, a teenager from Wyoming is set to face charges as an adult following the tragic shooting of his mother, reportedly over a dispute about his academic performance. Authorities allege that the young boy used his mother’s firearm, which he had taken a week prior after a heated disagreement regarding his school grades.

The Laramie County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that the incident occurred on the afternoon of March 7 in a Cheyenne residence. Upon arriving at the scene, deputies discovered 41-year-old Theresa McIntosh with a critical gunshot wound to the back of her head. Although she was still breathing, she was rendered unconscious and required immediate airlifting to a hospital in Colorado. Tragically, McIntosh succumbed to her injuries the following day, March 8.

Initially, on March 10, officials reported taking a juvenile into custody at the scene. Recent updates have identified this individual as 14-year-old Havoc Leone. Leone initially claimed that his mother had inflicted the injury upon herself, a statement he later recanted according to law enforcement.

Details from court documents, as reported by local news outlet Cowboy State Daily, reveal that Leone allegedly confessed to investigators. He reportedly admitted to shooting his mother while she was on the floor working on a puzzle, delivering a single shot to the back of her head. Leone reportedly expressed that he was engulfed in anger at the moment of the shooting, feeling unable to communicate his feelings of hatred towards his mother because, in his words, she failed to understand him.

The young boy allegedly shared with police that McIntosh would often call him derogatory names and claimed he entertained thoughts of killing her when she compelled him to do things against his will.

This tragic sequence of events was reportedly set in motion a week prior to the shooting, following an argument over Leone’s math grade, where he received a D. In response, Leone is alleged to have taken his mother’s Taurus 9 mm gun from her car, hiding it in a boot in his bedroom, ultimately leading to the devastating incident.

On the day of the shooting, McIntosh and her common-law husband, who is Leone’s father, fought with the teenager after suspecting him of stealing a tablet from one of his mother’s cleaning clients, police said.

McIntosh allegedly called Leone a “thief” and claimed that he was mentally handicapped.

According to court documents, McIntosh ordered Leone to hand over the tablet password, which was written in a notebook in his room. Police said when he got the notebook, he also got his mother’s 9 mm.

Leone allegedly told police that he threw the notebook at his mother, who was on the floor doing a puzzle. He said she continued to yell at him while she was bent down to get either the notebook or the tablet. While she was turned away from him, he told police he pointed the gun with both hands and pulled the trigger, hitting his mother in the back of the head.

Leone’s father, who was in the basement playing video games while wearing noise-canceling headphones, told police that he heard a popping sound. When he went to the bedroom where he knew McIntosh was doing her puzzle, he saw Leone, who allegedly said, “I don’t know, it just went off.”

After Leone’s father called 911, he went to render aid to McIntosh, who was “unresponsive with blood and ‘brains’ all over the place.” While holding a towel to McIntosh’s head wound, he noticed that her gun was on the floor. He told police that it was unexpected, because he knew she kept it in her vehicle.

While Leone’s father was being questioned, he knew what his son allegedly did, but did not “want to think what I think happened.” He later told investigators, “I understand, but I don’t want to f—ing say it. Yes, I understand that it’s a possibility, but I really hope it’s not. It’d be a lot easier to accept that she killed herself than my son tried to kill her.”

Leone was charged as an adult with first-degree murder. Local news outlet Oil City News reported that he is being held on $500,000 bond and is scheduled to appear in court on March 18.