Anonymous wrote:I'd been wondering if the dad was actually the killer and blamed the son and now it was about to come out.
Probably not. Ballistics testing and gunpowder residue testing would help investigators determine what likely happened. More might come out at trial (though the hearings are closed so far) but it seems reasonable to conclude that forensic evidence pointed investigators to the individual who was arrested. Initial statements just give investigators something to go on. It wouldn’t take this long for them to figure out whether additional gunshots were fired or if the father had gunpowder residue on his hands at the scene. Additionally, the actions of both people involved after the crime aren’t consistent with this theory.
It was probably possible for experts to verify with a high degree of certainty whether the father’s injury at the initial crime scene was the result of being “sniped” (as he stated) or self inflicted.
Of course, as far as mitigating factors, you don’t have to look far into the father and his statements to see what could have contributed to this. Right now we only know a small fraction, again I’m sure more will come out on that from the defense during trial. This is a terrible tragedy.