The dramatic story of Shavon Carrillo, a mother who said "I love you" to her 11-year-old son before pulling the trigger of a .22 caliber rifle and shooting him in the head, has shocked residents and authorities in Las Vegas, who are trying to understand the motives that led the woman to shoot her own son.
Last Monday, 31-year-old Carrillo put her 3 children of 2, 9 and 11 years, to sleep. Minutes later, her brother-in-law heard a loud noise. Immediately, he went to the room where the children were sleeping and realized that the oldest of them had a gunshot injury in his head.
According to News 3, an NBC affiliate, in its website, the man faced the woman to take the rifle from her and once he did he alerted the authorities, who arrived at the home where they found the injured minor and arrested Carrillo for attempted murder.
The boy, whose identity was not revealed to the media, was urgently taken to the Las Vegas University Medical Center; however, his health was reported as critical and the doctors looking after him have said that it's likely that the boy will not survive the next hours.
According to The Latin Times, the woman and her children had gone to live with her sister and her brother-in-law a week before. Carrillo is going through a divorce process and told her family that her children would be in a "better place", and decided to take their lives before committing suicide.
The woman said she was worried that her husband's friends were following her and could hurt her or the children. Likewise, Carrillo said that a man identified as "Bobby" had visited her sister's home on Monday to collect money she owed.
Authorities so far have not been able to confirm these statements. Shavon Carrillo remains detained with a bail set at $1 million dollars and it's expected that the charges against her will change in case her son dies in the next hours.