{"id":194059,"date":"2026-05-16T07:11:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T07:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/194059\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T07:11:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T07:11:08","slug":"teen-to-be-charged-with-3rd-degree-murder-after-girl-accidentally-shot-and-killed-in-upper-darby-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/194059\/","title":{"rendered":"Teen to be charged with 3rd-degree murder after girl accidentally shot and killed in Upper Darby"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 14-year-old boy will be charged with third-degree murder after an accidental shooting inside an Upper Darby home<\/a> left a teenage girl dead.<\/p>\n

The boy will be charged as an adult, police told Action News on Friday. Investigators say they determined he had the gun in his hand based on witness interviews.<\/p>\n

No one else is facing charges. The name of the teen being charged has not been released.<\/p>\n

The shooting happened as a group of friends gathered inside a home on Thursday afternoon, along the 100 block of Springton Road.<\/p>\n

Upper Darby Police Superintendent Timothy Bernhardt said investigators believe a group of friends, which included two boys and two girls, were hanging out at the home. He says they got hold of a gun in the house, and it went off while they were playing with it in the upstairs bedroom.<\/p>\n

Officials say a single bullet was fired, striking the victim in the head.<\/p>\n

“What we do know is that it wasn’t like this was an act of violence, it wasn’t like this was a fight, it wasn’t a dispute,” said Bernhardt.<\/p>\n

According to the criminal complaint, the 14-year-old boy told detectives that he knew the victim’s mother kept a handgun in her bedroom closet. They took the gun and eventually went to the victim’s bedroom, where the shooting unfolded. A witness told police she heard the boy say, “Oh my God, I just killed her!”<\/p>\n

Bernhardt said the girl’s mother is still trying to process the loss. He emphasized the dangers of unsecured firearms, noting that the township provides free gun locks to adults.<\/p>\n

“There’s no redo when it comes to guns. Once a life is taken, it cannot be taken back,” Bernhardt said. He added that the boy is being charged “for his extreme recklessness with playing with that handgun.”<\/p>\n

“Kids need to realize guns are not toys,” he added. “A bad decision, a careless moment has forever changed the lives of our victim’s family, those three other juveniles that were there, their families and our entire community.”<\/p>\n

It was a somber start to the day on Friday, as students, parents and staff returned to Beverly Hills Middle School, where officials say the victim was a student.<\/p>\n

“It’s a sad thing for the parents, so I really feel sorry for everybody,” said Samantha Myers from Upper Darby.<\/p>\n

The school district also made grief counselors available.<\/p>\n

Neighbors expressed shock and sadness as they learned of the charges and the girl’s death.<\/p>\n

“That’s a lot for a 14-year-old, but he has to suffer the consequences,” said neighbor Ida McKnight. “We all know what guns do, and he knows what guns do.”<\/p>\n

Another neighbor said, “I feel real bad and sad that this happened to the little girl.”<\/p>\n

“It’s a shame that it happened. I feel sorry for the family. I really feel sorry for the mom,” McKnight added.<\/p>\n

She said neighbors plan to support the family, saying, “We all live as one. We should show love to each other. It’s about love and happiness.”<\/p>\n

Police said the teen was arraigned Friday night and remains behind bars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 14-year-old boy will be charged with third-degree murder after an accidental shooting inside an Upper Darby home…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":194060,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[82586,86300,147,149,148,150,86369],"class_list":["post-194059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-upper-darby","tag-bernhardt","tag-timothy-bernhardt","tag-upper-darby","tag-upper-darby-headlines","tag-upper-darby-news","tag-upper-darby-township","tag-witness-interviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}