Fifteen-Year-Old Charged With Killing His Parents And Two Younger Brothers
Posted February 4, 2008 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
It is one of the most chilling and inexplicable crimes in recent history. And it happened in the last place you’d expect – a quiet suburb in the city of Baltimore, Maryland.
Police have charged a 15-year-old boy with multiple counts of murder. His alleged victims: his own parents and his two younger brothers, one aged 13, the other just 11. As if that isn’t disturbing enough, authorities contend the boy committed the crimes then spent the next 12 hours hanging out with his friends before calling cops to report that his father was dead.
But when detectives checked out Nicholas Waggoner Browning’s story, they found it didn’t add up. After questioning the youngster, he reportedly confessed to the deadly deeds.
Authorities say the boy hadn’t been getting along well with his father, and waited for everyone to go to sleep on Friday night. That’s when they allege Browning took his dad’s handgun, crept up on him as he snoozed in the living room downstairs and shot him to death. They contend he repeated the grisly task in the upstairs bedrooms of the others inside the two-storey home.
He then supposedly threw the gun into the bushes outside, where cops found it the next day. The boy apparently showed no signs of anything being amiss and went out with his pals in the morning, staying away from the house until late in the afternoon. When he returned about 5pm Saturday, he entered the residence and called 911, telling dispatchers he’d found his father unconscious with blood coming out of his nose.
Paramedics thought it was a heart attack. They found out differently when they got to the home and saw the other victims. That’s when police arrived.
Neighbours recall Browning as “just a regular, normal kid,” and while classmates knew he was having problems with his father, none ever dreamed it would get this far.
The teen has been charged as an adult and faces four counts of first-degree murder. He remains behind bars without bail and if convicted, could spend the rest of his life in jail. He’s too young to be eligible to face the death penalty in the state.
