As mom was being choked, 12-year-old son got gun. His sister pulled trigger, cops say

Two North Carolina children partnered to kill their mom’s abusive boyfriend, after they found him strangling their mother, according to the Rutherford County Sheriff’s office.

Steven Kelley died shortly after midnight on Aug. 8, after his girlfriend’s 12-year-old son got a gun and handed it to his 15-year-old sister, who pulled the trigger, according to a press release from the sheriff’s office.

Two bullets hit 46-year-old Kelley in the chest as he beat Chandra Nierman, the statement said.

Another of Nierman’s children, a 16-year-old girl, was grazed by a bullet fragment as she stood nearby, police said in the release.

The 911 call came in at 12:11 a.m., from the family’s home on Lakeview Drive in Forest City, officials said.

District attorneys decided not to press charges after the sheriff’s office argued the case was a “justified” shooting, the press release said.

“During the assault, the deceased male was yelling that he was going to cut Nierman’s throat and kill everyone in the house,” the department’s statement read.

The three children have not been identified due to their age. It was not made clear if Kelley , who is from Indiana, lived in the home with the family.

Chandra Nierman had “significant” bruises from the attack, the sheriff’s office said.

Nierman, her children and Kelley had recently moved to the area from Indiana, reported McDowell News.

Investigators said in a press release that Kelley kept “multiple” guns in the home and had threatened Nierman in the past. Five days before the shooting, Kelley had “assaulted Nierman and fired multiple rounds from a firearm inside the residence to threaten and terrorize Nierman,” the release said.

No domestic violence calls had been made from the family’s home in the past, but two women (one in Ohio and one in Indiana) have existing “domestic violence protection orders” against Kelley, the sheriff’s office statement said.

This story was originally published August 16, 2018 at 12:22 PM.