A Michigan father was bound over for trial last week after gunning down his teen son and wounding two of the boy’s siblings.
Jeffrey Smerer, 44, slashed his wrist and took “multiple forms of medication” after shooting 17-year-old Kayleb Smerer, 13-year-old Bentley Smerer, and 12-year-old Kinzley Smerer on September 11, police said at a preliminary hearing, Law&Crime reported.
All three children were taken to the hospital, where Kayleb died. The other two were critically injured.
A police detective testified that Smerer told investigators he planned the attack for a week before carrying it out on the day he was to be sentenced after pleading guilty to an indecent exposure charge. Detective Grafton Sharp said that Smerer told them he was “stressed due to the sentencing on his court case” and decided on a murder-suicide as the way to go.
He said he chose Kinzley and Kayleb because he was closest with them, adding that Kinzley was close with Bentley. The plan was “to take Kinzley, Bentley, and Kayleb with him and then shoot himself,” Sharp said.
Sharp said Smerer told investigators he got up around 6 a.m. that morning and took his .380 from a gunsafe, then went into Kinzley and Bentley’s bedroom, told them “good morning,” and then went into the bathroom to h talk himself into going through with the murders in the mirror.
Then he came back into the bedroom and started shooting. Then he went to the living room, where Kayleb was sitting on a couch, and shot him in the head.
Smerer claimed his gun “jammed” when he tried to shoot himself, so he slashed his wrist. His wife and 19-year-old son responded to the gunshots and disarmed him.
Family members told WXYZ that Bentley suffered facial fractures in the shooting and his sister Kinzley had a bullet lodged in her spine and is now paralyzed from the neck down. She also had reconstructive facial surgery.
The judge last week denied bond for Smerer and ordered him to have no contact with his surviving children.
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[Featured image: Jeffrey Smerer/WDIV screenshot]
