What happens legally when a 13 year accidentally shoots and kills her brother

[snailslime]

I'm writing a story and a key moment in my protagonist's backstory is when she was thirteen and accidentally shot her twin brother in the head during a hunting trip with their father. I was thinking about having her get sent to some sort of juvenile correction/mental health facility until she turns eighteen, but I wasn't sure if this was accurate to how United States law works regarding these types of situations. Also, would any sort of serious legal repercussions be unrealistic given this would be something that happens within the family, and if so, would it work better if the brother was instead the child of a family friend? Any info would be helpful!

Comments

[threeplusfire]

Given the age and circumstances, the father could be looking at charges for failure to properly supervise/secure the firearms depending on where they lived. American news (generally local rather than national) is absolutely full of stories of kids accidentally shooting their siblings and it has become more common for parents to be charged with some kind of negligence for having guns accessible. Especially depending on the type of weapon - are they hunting with regular old shotguns or rifles or did Dad send the kids out into the woods with a couple AR-15s?

If the shooting was an accident, then she would not be institutionalized by the law. Possibly she could be sent to juvenile if charges were brought/an investigation determined this was not accidental? But that's a whole different can of worms about getting railroaded by the juvenile justice system and particularly where your protagonist's race/socioeconomic class will have a huge impact. White kids often get substantially less penalties than kids of color for a lot of reasons and receive more benefit of the doubt about innocence.

Presuming this was an accident, that we're talking a middle class family - if in the aftermath of her twin's death the protagonist became extremely depressed/suicidal/out of control then it would be possible for her parents to send her to a mental health facility. She could be there awhile but probably not five years long. This is going to depend on the family's health insurance and they are stingy as hell when it comes to in patient treatment. Maybe a couple months if they're good but longer than that would be a real fight/require some serious issues.

As for the relationship to the victim - it's only going to matter for your protagonist. The law is going to be the same whether this is her brother or an unrelated child. If the father is a cop there's going to be some degree of pressure from the cops to protect each other contrasted with the pressure to do things by the book/not show favoritism or corruption of the system. That's another complex dynamic in America, the cops.