A mother in Ohio was arrested shortly after her teen son was accused of fatally shooting a 15-year-old girl.
Erin Barker was arrested and charged with tampering with evidence following the shooting on Thursday, June 19. Barker, 47, has not yet entered a plea and her bond has been set at $25,000, according to FOX 8.
Barker is expected to return to court on Friday, June 26, for a prehearing regarding the charge.
Officers with the Alliance Police Department said that Barker’s son used her gun to fatally shoot Kennedy Wise around 4:15 p.m. on June 19, per the outlet.
Captain James Hilles said the investigation ultimately revealed that the boy mistakenly shot Wise, which is common for people that have no firearms training.
“He stated they had removed the magazine from the pistol and thought it was unloaded and then discharged the firearm into the victim, killing her,” Hilles told FOX 8. “Even though he had removed the magazine from the firearm, there was still a round of ammunition chambered in the firearm, so when he decided to pull that trigger, that round was still live.”
Police also learned that the boy and a friend who was present at the time of the shooting took the gun to Barker’s workplace and told the mother that Wise died by suicide.
Authorities claimed that Barker then took the gun to Wise’s home and allegedly staged the scene by placing the gun back in the kitchen. She then called 911 to report the death.
At the time of the 911 call, the dispatcher asked Barker where the gun was. “It’s laying right in front of her,” Barker responded, per the outlet.
The dispatcher then told her to not “touch it at all” as they waited for police to report to the home.
“Oh, I already did, I took the thing (clip) out of it, I was scared, you know, I didn’t want somebody else to pick it up because they were troubled by the situation,” Barker reportedly said.
Amid the investigation, detectives concluded that the evidence and the stories that Barker, her son and the friend shared did not add up.
“Nothing was consistent with a suicide scene based on the numerous ones that we’ve been to in the past. The detectives brought the two juvenile males back here that were present during the shooting and were able to get the truth out of them about what had occurred,” Hilles told the outlet.
The 14-year-old boy was eventually arrested on charges including reckless homicide and involuntary manslaughter. He has since pleaded not true to his involvement in the killing, according to The Alliance Review.
While Barker has already been charged with tampering of evidence, police said she could face additional charges for not properly securing the gun at home. Police also said they believe Barker worsened the killing by lying to authorities and staging the death to appear as a suicide.
“For what reason, maybe to protect her son or not, but had these children not finally told the truth, the parent of the victim might have been left with the idea that her daughter had actually taken her own life and had to live with that,” Hilles said.
