|
August 7, 2003 BY CARLOS SADOVI Staff Reporter A 14-year-old boy, angry that he had been grounded and barred from seeing his best friend for missing a family dinner, allegedly schemed for nearly a week to kill his father, a decorated Chicago police sergeant. On Tuesday, before he shot and killed his father, Francis Skroch IV, the boy called his mother at work to find out when she would be home. He also asked when his father would be home to make sure he had time to break into the family safe, which contained two guns, a source close to the investigation said. He first tried a power drill, then a screw driver, and eventually used a hammer to break into the safe, a technique he told investigators he learned from watching the Jodie Foster movie Panic Room. The teen then waited in the family's second-floor computer room for Skroch, a Grand Crossing district police officer lauded as a hero in 1997. When Skroch got home, he went to find his son and was about 5 feet from the boy when he noticed the guns, the source said. Skroch ran from the room, but his son allegedly followed and shot his father in the back as he ran down the stairs. The boy stayed in the house in the 11100 block of South Troy until his mother got home. He then allegedly turned the gun on her and also pointed the gun at himself before she persuaded him to give her the gun, the source said. The mother begged, 'Don't shoot, don't shoot,' '' the source said. He said, 'I just shot dad. I can't live with myself.'' The teen was charged as a juvenile with murder Wednesday and was being held without bond. Neighbors and friends said he was a sensitive boy who remembered to buy presents for friends, liked to go to teen dances and played the drums. Last week, the boy, who was to attend Brother Rice High School in the fall, told his best friend at a Boy Scout meeting of his plan to kill his father, the source said. I was mad at my dad and decided I had to shoot him,'' the boy allegedly told investigators. Investigators said he was unemotional, matter-of-fact and articulate during the interrogation. The dispute between father and son started last week after the teen was an hour late for dinner, the source said. The boy lied to his parents, saying he was at his best friend's house, but his parents told him they had already called the friend's house and gotten no answer. He admitted that he was in a water balloon fight [and] the parents said they didn't want him hanging out with the best friend because he was a bad influence on him,'' the source said. He was told that he was 14 years old now and that he had to be responsible and start coming home when he was told and not an hour later or not calling.'' The teen's best friend, who was questioned by authorities, also is the son of a Chicago police officer. He allegedly told the other teen that his mother kept her guns under her bed and that he would also kill her, the source said. He has not been charged.
|
