A teenager has been charged with murder after allegedly beating his own grandmother to death inside their Mississippi church.
Jadynn Hamilton, 17, was arrested and charged Wednesday night, following the death of 73-year-old Ollie Hamilton from the Athens community.
Deputies from Monroe County Sheriff’s Office responded to a 911 call for assistance, after family members discovered the elderly victim severely beaten inside a local church building where she attended.
The septuagenarian was found just inside an outer door area that led to the kitchen and was pronounced dead at the scene.
During their investigations, and having taken statements from witnesses at the scene, detectives identified Hamilton as a suspect. The teenager was allegedly present at the scene at the time of the attack.
He was taken into custody as more evidence was gathered and police say he later confessed to the crime. A motive was not immediately made clear and the youngster also had no prior run-ins with law enforcement.
“This is a tragedy of the worst kind because you’ve got a beloved church member, family member and community member killed and you come to find out within 24 hours she was killed by another beloved family member,” Monroe County Sheriff Kevin Crook told the Monroe Journal.
“If somebody is not able to control their impulses and they reach that point, I don’t think it really matters who the victim is at the time. If it got them to that level of anger, they’re going to lash out at whoever – it just happened to be his grandmother.”
In a separate statement Crook added: “I can’t imagine how hard this is on this community. There are so many good people in and around that church and my heart goes out to them and the family.
“This is a tragedy of the worst kind, and it can tear apart families. Please keep them in your prayers.”
Crook also praised the work of patrolmen and investigators who attended the scene and apprehended the teenager so quickly.
