US: Ten-year-old boy 'shot his mother dead after row'

A TEN-YEAR old boy from rural Ohio has been charged with murdering his mother by shooting her in the head.

Deborah McVay, 46, was found with a single gunshot wound to the head on Sunday night in the town of Big Prairie in the Midwestern state.

A preliminary investigation has indicated that an argument may have precipitated the shooting, sheriff's chief deputy Nathan Fritz said.

"There may have been an argument over whether he should bring firewood into the house," Mr Fritz said, "and possibly escalated from there."

Four weapons were found in the boy's bedroom. On his bed were the .22 calibre rifle believed to be the weapon that killed his mother and a 12-gauge shotgun. On a gun rack mounted to the wall hung two more .22 calibre rifles, Mr Fritz said.

Paramedics found Mrs McVay lying face down on her living room floor. she was pronounced dead at the scene

Authorities went to the house, in rolling farmland, after a neighbour called police to say Mrs McVay's son had come to her home and said he had just shot his mother.

"I'm her neighbour. I'm over here. She's bleeding from her head," the neighbour told the emergency dispatcher.

According to FBI crime statistics, 11 children aged five to 12 were accused of murder in the United States in 2009 - ten boys and one girl.

"It's not unusual for boys of that age to hunt and shoot," Mr Fritz said. "I think it's unusual that those weapons were permitted to be in the boy's bedroom."

The boy lived with his mother and 15-year-old sister - who was present at the time of the shooting - in a small one-storey dwelling, Mr Fritz said.

Family members have told authorities that the guns were a present from the boy's late grandfather, though when they came into his possession is unclear. The weapons were not new, but authorities did not know whether the boy had used them before, Mr Fritz said.