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Boy Charged With Killing His Family

By KASEY JONES,
AP
Posted: 2008-02-03 23:05:17
Filed Under: Crime News, Nation News
COCKEYSVILLE, Md. (Feb. 3) - A 15-year-old boy fatally shot his parents and two younger brothers as they slept, then spent more than 12 hours with friends before returning home and calling 911 to report that his father was dead, police said Sunday.

Police went to their suburban Baltimore home and later charged Nicholas Waggoner Browning after he admitted to the slayings, Baltimore County Police spokesman Bill Toohey said.

The scene of the murders in Cockeysville, Md.
Steve Ruark, AP

Police said Nicholas Waggoner Browning, 15, had not been getting along with his father, and on Friday night, he went into the family home in Cockeysville, Md., above, after other family members were asleep and shot each of them using his father's handgun.

Browning was charged as an adult with four counts of first-degree murder in the slayings of his father, John Browning, 45; his mother Tamara, 44; and his brothers Gregory, 13, and Benjamin, 11.

The teen had not been getting along with his father, police said. On Friday night, he went into the house after other family members had gone to sleep and shot each of them. His father's handgun had been in the house, police said.

After the slayings, he threw the handgun into bushes near the house, police said. The gun was recovered, Toohey said.

When the friends took him back to his house at 5 p.m. Saturday, Browning went into the house and came back out to say that his father was dead.

Browning called 911, telling the dispatcher that a "45-year-old male was lying on the couch with blood coming out of his nose. He was not breathing," according to charging documents. Officers were sent on a "call of a cardiac arrest."

Police said Browning's father was found in a ground-floor room and his mother and brothers were dead in upstairs bedrooms. There was no sign of a confrontation, Toohey said.

The tall, gangly sophomore at Dulaney High School in neighboring Timonium was denied bail; a bail review hearing was scheduled Monday. He was being held at the Baltimore County Detention Center in a special section for juveniles.

Toohey said he didn't know if Browning had a lawyer.

Even if convicted as an adult of first-degree murder, Browning is too young under state law to face the death penalty.

Two of Browning's classmates drove past the family's house Sunday afternoon and wept when they learned from reporters that he was charged in the slayings.

"It's hard to believe someone could do this," Brooke Kebaugh, 16, said.

Liz Lazlawbach, 17, said Browning complained about fighting with his father, but "not about anything violent."

The grounds of the two-story home were neat and neighbor Mike Thomas said the Brownings would even pick up trash along the street. "These people would do anything in the world for you — just incredible people," Thomas said.

Neighbors called each other throughout the night to discuss the killings, Thomas said. He said one of his sons had been in Boy Scouts with one of the Brownings' sons and was devastated when he learned of the deaths.

About 50 people — mostly teenagers — gathered for a candlelight vigil in front of the Brownings house Sunday night. The crowd stood in silence for about ten minutes. Some cried.

John Thibeault said his son Kyle went to school with Benjamin and they were both "traumatized" by the deaths. He said his family locked their doors Saturday night, fearing a killer was on the loose.

Thibeault described Nicholas Browning as "just a regular, normal kid."

John Browning was a partner in the law firm of Royston, Mueller, McLean & Reid in Towson, focusing on real estate law and commercial and corporate law.

The partners said Browning was an accomplished lawyer.

"He was also a person invested in his family and community," the partners said. "He led his local scout troop. He was a leader at his church. In short, John Browning was a great man. We will all miss him very, very much."

The Brownings' Boy Scout unit, Troop 328, meets at Timonium United Methodist Church.

The Rev. Frances Dailey said Sunday that the troop's leaders did not want to talk. He said John Browning was "beloved and well revered. I'm told this is not the kind of family that this could happen to."

Counselors were to be available Monday to meet with students at Dulaney High, said Charles Herndon, a county school spokesman. He declined to say where Browning's younger brothers went to school.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.
2008-02-03 15:29:01
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Recent Comments

1 - 10 of 1103
1103 comments

marciallp 11:01:28 PM Feb 07 2008

Wasnt it said an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth? cant blame the parents-The people in the world are going nuts. Too much time on their hands or something. The boy should be charged as an adult and they ought to do to him the exact same as he did to his family. Nevermind spending dollars in the courts take him and shoot him and be done with it.

shaw3247 09:30:36 PM Feb 07 2008

onslow1066 08:27:06 PM Feb 07 2008

Report This! SEND HIM TO IRAQ !!!
ASAP... THEN HE CAN SHOOT
ANYONE HE WANTS TO.
WAKE UP AMERICA !!!!

NOW WHAT EXACTLY DOES THAT STATEMENT MEAN TO YOU? YOU TYPED IT AND I'M JUST CURIOUS WHAT IT HAS AT ALL TO DUE WITH THIS SITUATION? ABSOLUTELY ******* ZERO, YOU FOOL, THAT'S WHAT I THINK!! NOT TO MENTION THAT THE DAD OWNED THE HAND GUN THAT THE BOY USED BECAUSE HE CLEARLY HAS A VERY TROUBLED MIND AND IT HAS NOTHING TO DUE WITH IRAQ OR YOU OR ME OR ANYONE ELSE THAT'S NOT DEAD NOW AT THE HANDS OF THE SON. SO SHUT UP WITH ALL THE IRAQ, HATE BUSH CRAP AND GETOFF IT ALREADY, THERE'LL BE ANOTHER CORRUPT AND NON-TRUTH TELLING PRESIDENT, MAYBE EVEN HILARY AND HEY, I'M GUESSING THAT ONCE SHE'S THE BIG TOP GUN THAT'LL REALLY GET THE BAD VIBES FLYING. ANYWAY, HOW MUCH DO YOU WANT TO BET ON YOUR LAST DOLLAR THAT WHENS SHE'S RUNNING THE COUNTRY DOWN LIKE ALL THE OTHERS BEFORE AND AFTER ARE NORMALLY ACCUSSED OF, I BET YOU THAT WHEN SHE'S IN CHARGE THAT WILL NOT EV

onslow1066 08:27:06 PM Feb 07 2008

SEND HIM TO IRAQ !!!
ASAP... THEN HE CAN SHOOT
ANYONE HE WANTS TO.
WAKE UP AMERICA !!!!

baldocny 05:02:19 PM Feb 07 2008

there has been all too much of this kind of incidents in the media of late.
what is our country coming to. much of it can be directed to those laws reguarding parents punishing their children.as parents when i was growing up ,if i did something wrong -i got spanked . now all a parent can do is give his /or her own child a timeout.

dragonkora 12:19:49 PM Feb 07 2008

aleighcat' God bless and keep you.I hope your son comes back safe and sound .If he does'nt I will forever be grateful to him for his service to our country.I don't know what else I can say.I live in the city next to a park,in the the last 30 some odd years I have seen things that maybe someone in a more populated area would have just shrugged off.But how can you shrug this off? you can't.You also can't blame someone who is not able to defend themselves.They say he was having problems with his father............OK if thats so why kill the other members of his family?People do the stupidest things for the dumbest reasons.But I think he should at the very least be kept from(in some way} the rest of society,because at the age of 15,if he is capable of disposing of the people who were the closest to him who will ever be ,what would he do to a complete stranger?Think about it,and give him the chance to do so for the rest of his life.I know how much it costs,to feed and keep him,but how much

babystunner17 04:24:35 PM Feb 06 2008

your whole family really stupid thing to do as 15 going to jures put you in jail

dd3075 06:39:26 PM Feb 05 2008

cont'd.....................
And for the anti-NRA, if this young murderer had used a butcher knife or an axe to murder his entire family, are you going to call for the elimination of all knives and axes? What if he turned the gas on in the house to kill them? Does the rest of the country need to go without heat? Good grief. Some people have difficulty with logic.

dd3075 06:38:21 PM Feb 05 2008

huffstutterr 09:40:11 AM Feb 05 2008 wrote:........ PERHAPS THE POLICE (and let's add the media...those wanna be police to president types) CAN BEGIN GRADING CRIMES..........
=======================
Well, huff, you should be aware that we can't grade criminal participants. According to the irrational liberal left, if we grade others (like in school), that would mean that someone could get a failing grade. We just can't do that because it might make the failures FEEL like failures. We don't want anyone, including criminal participants, feeling a negative impact to their self-images. Besides, for all crimes and/or failures, it is always someone else's fault. There is no such thing as personal responsibility for our own actions anymore. That's the way of the left.

And for the anti-NRA, if this young murderer had used a butcher knife or an axe to murder his entire family, are you going to call for the elimination of all knives and axes? What if he turned the gas on in the house t

shadowsmgc 03:46:47 PM Feb 05 2008

mtflykun 11:18:43 AM Feb 05 2008

Report This! Too young for the death penalty? Old enough to kill, old enough to die.
==================================
The kid's lucky that I'm not "king of the world." I'd decree that any murderer who murders more than one person, would be surgically killed. We'd then remove, and donate all his vital organs, and all usable parts of his body. In that manner, we'd allow each of them to make good, on their normal refrain, "I WISH I COULD TAKE IT BACK" I WISH I COULD HAVE A CHANCE TO MAKE UP, FOR WHAT I DID." My decree, as "King of the world, would make that all possible.
Dennis

niitsiapi 03:20:29 PM Feb 05 2008

gman350z

Stop blaming murder on video games and television... I love gore movies, violent video games and full contact arena sports... I have never killed anyone, I have never been accused of a violent crime...murder has existed since the dawn of man... I don't remember Cain killing his brother after a game of Saint's Row or Grand Theft Auto...

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