An 11-year-old boy in the US state of Tennessee has been held on suspicion of shooting dead an eight-year-old girl in a row over a puppy.
The boy has been charged with first-degree murder as a juvenile.
According to police, he shot neighbour McKayla Dyer on Saturday evening after she refused to let him see her puppy.
Her mother Latasha said that the two children went to the same school in White Pine, about 200 miles (315km) east of Nashville.
She said the family had had trouble with the boy when they first moved to the area.
“He was making fun of her, calling her names, just being mean to her. I had to go to the principal about him and he quit for a while and then all of a sudden yesterday he shot her,” Ms Dyer told WATE-TV.
“She was a precious little girl. She was mommy’s girl. No matter how bad of a mood you were in, she could always make you smile.”
“I want her back in my arms,” she said.
The Gun Violence Archive, a not-for-profit organisation that compiles data on gun violence in the US, says 559 children aged 11 or under have been killed or injured in the United States in gun violence so far this year.
