Left inset: Steven Merkel (Walworth County Sheriff’s Office). Right inset: Steven Merkel’s 8-year-old son Michael Meagher (GoFundMe). Background: The residence where Steven Merkel allegedly shot his stepson (WITI/YouTube).
A man in Wisconsin has admitted to killing his 8-year-old stepson while showing off his guns to him — telling cops afterward that he was attempting to “look cool,” according to local officials.
Steven Merkel, 53, of Lake Geneva, entered a guilty plea Wednesday for first-degree reckless homicide in connection to the death of his stepson Michael Meagher at a residence on Lincoln Drive in Walworth County on Jan. 20, according to the Town of Geneva Police Department and Walworth County District Attorney’s Office.
“Merkel claimed the shooting was an accident after police found Michael Meagher fatally wounded inside Merkel’s home,” said Geneva town supervisor Scott Williams in a statement posted to Facebook after Merkel pleaded guilty in Walworth County Circuit Court.
Town of Geneva police officers and fire personnel responded to the home at around 2:25 a.m. and found Michael suffering from a single gunshot wound, according to a Jan. 20 press release. “Life saving measures” were performed but the boy succumbed to his injuries at a local hospital.
When officers questioned Merkel about what happened, he “seemed frantic and was covered in blood,” according to the criminal complaint obtained by Milwaukee Fox affiliate WITI.
Merkel later told cops that “he did something stupid, and it wasn’t (Meagher’s) fault” that he got shot. When police asked him why he was showing Michael the guns, Merkel told them “because it made the defendant look cool,” the complaint stated.
Merkel claimed he took the magazine out of the 9 mm handgun that killed Michael and was under the impression that it wouldn’t fire without it, per police.
“He walked out of the bedroom and pointed the gun at (Meagher),” the complaint said, according to WITI. “The defendant stated that the defendant pulled the trigger and was expecting it to click, but instead it went ‘boom,’ shooting (Meagher).”
Merkel admitted to cops that he had pulled out his handgun to show Meagher before in the past — even pointing it down toward him while ordering him to listen, the complaint alleged. Cops said he “drank two little drinks of rum and RC that evening” before the shooting.
A GoFundMe was launched for Michael’s family by one of his friends’ parents, which described the incident as a “very traumatic accident,” per the description.
“Michael was 8 years old & a bright funny boy!” the description said. “My son loved his friend.”
Merkel is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 20.
