10-Year-Old Shot Dead on Thanksgiving—Allegedly by Dad

A 10-year-old boy was shot dead in front of his Omaha, Nebraska, home on Thursday night—allegedly by his own father.

Police say they responded to the home shortly before midnight and found a boy “suffering from a gunshot wound.” The boy, identified as Kendrick McDonald, was taken to a hospital but succumbed to his injuries, the Omaha Police Department said in a statement.

The boy’s 47-year-old father, Will McDonald, faces a charge of criminal homicide and possession of a firearm by a prohibited person, according to police. The circumstances surrounding the shooting are unclear, but in comments to the Omaha World Herald, Capt. Jeremy Christensen admitted that investigators still had a lot of unanswered questions.

“Obviously, we’re still pretty early,” Christensen was quoted telling the outlet. “We do know that there was allegedly a car alarm going off, and for whatever reason the suspect/father went outside to maybe investigate that. We’re not 100 percent on that, but we are receiving information that a car alarm was going off. . . . As to exactly what transpired and the why of it, we’re still trying to piece that together through our investigation.”

He said investigators were still working to “figure out” if McDonald may have mistaken his own son for a car thief. Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine said formal charges could be filed as soon as Sunday.

“It’s obviously very tragic,” Kleine said. “But we have to determine if he [Will McDonald] was justified in doing what he did. . . . At this point in time, it doesn’t appear that he was justified in firing.”