Brotherly row leads to death

COLUMBIA - A 13-year-old boy in South Carolina was charged yesterday with shooting his 10-year-old brother to death after they argued over who got to sit in bed to watch a movie, authorities said.

The boys' father, Gary Roberts, 44, was charged with unlawful neglect because he left a loaded rifle in a bedroom, Kershaw County Sheriff's Captain David Thomley said.

Gayloyd Roberts, 10, was shot on Tuesday. The child and his 13-year-old brother had argued over the seating arrangement for watching the movie.

The older brother, whose name has not been released because he is a juvenile, grabbed the .22-calibre rifle and fired once, hitting Gayloyd in the face, Thomley said. Gayloyd died a short time later at a hospital.

The 13-year-old has been charged with murder, but Thomley said investigators would let prosecutors decide whether to ask a judge to charge him as an adult.

Gary Roberts was in jail awaiting a bond hearing.

The killing is the latest in a series of shootings by children. An 11-year-old boy in Pennsylvania is accused of killing his father's pregnant fiancee. In Arizona, an 8-year-old boy fatally shot his father and his father's roommate.

- AP