A father shot his 14-year-old gay son, with police attributing the murder in part to the boy’s sexual orientation.
Henderson police in Nevada say 53-year-old Wendell Melton shot and killed his son Giovanni in the morning of Thursday 2 November.
Sonja Jones is Giovanni’s former foster mom and said Wendell always had a thing against his son’s sexuality. She told 3 News: “He hated the fact that his son was gay. I’m sure that inside of his mind, he would rather have a dead son than a gay son.”
Jones also claims Wendell previously caught Giovanni with his boyfriend and then pulled a gun on him. She added: “Giovanni was abused physically and mentally and spiritually for many, many years.”
On the day of the incident, neighbours say a heated argument turned violent in the Horizons at Seven Hills apartment complex. Michael Chandler lives in the apartment building and said many of the neighbours heard the gunshots.
He said, “They heard a huge argument. They listened to the argument and then apparently the father shot his son.”
Neighbours also claim Giovanni was often left home alone and unsupervised. They also recount instances where Giovanni claimed his father mistreated him.
Jones said: “I hope they throw the book at him. I hope he never sees the light of day. I hope every day when he looks in the mirror, he sees his son’s face.”
Wendell Melton faces charges of open murder, child abuse, and prohibited person possessing a firearm.
When this news broke on the social media, predictably, Nigerians reacted. And the opinions of the homophobic lot prove yet again just how totally without inhumanity we are. Even some justified the senseless murder with the bible. Check on their comments below.
Sigh!
True…theyll prolly drag it in court till everyone forgets…..then the man would “escape” from police custody
Unfortunately our country isn’t one that punishes vile behaviour like this. It’s really sad.
You honestly should have reported these accounts. They will be banned from facebook temporary and these highly inciting comments deleted.
If this were a country where justice and freedom of men is upheld ….
These senseless scums would have either gone to jail or lost their means of livelihood.
This is terrible.
I’m just speechless. The inhumanity! Can’t believe people could actually think this and then go ahead to type and post it. Chai. Humanity’s time should just do and pass. This is just pure evil.
Some people should never be parents.
My God. This is appalling.
The hate is just too strong ?
I am not surprised, yet the stupidity levels shown are quite annoying. When will they rest sef? Having high blood pressure on matters that have no bearing with their immediate concerns
The real problem is the sheer number of people that reacted positively to those comments. Quite sad and disheartening but this is what you see everyday on online forums in Nigerian, pure unadulterated hate and the tide of hate is not ebbing soon.
We all should remember that these people are our families, our neighbors,our community people, our colleagues and heck,our friends kpaa kpaa. People should be careful out there.
Oh God, I can’t even read those comments. And people are actually liking and laughing at those comments????
A lot of Nigerians are animals. That’s all that needs to be said on this matter.
Read the post on Facebook. It was really heartbreaking to see that people were justifying and praising his action. This world terrible.
just sad
as usual. these days I even hate the idea of waking up and having to walk the streets of this country.