12-YEAR-OLD SHOT AND KILLED IN PENNSYLVANIA. HER 13-YEAR-OLD BROTHER FACES MURDER CHARGE.

A 12-year-old is dead in a Pennsylvania shooting and prosecutors are now charging her 13-year-old brother with murder. 

Montgomery County District Attorney announced last week the arrest of Jah’sir Vasquez, 13, on murder charges for fatally shooting his sister, 12-year-old Jasiyah Vasquez, at the family’s home in the Collegeville area of Upper Providence Township.

Upper Providence police responded to a reported shooting inside a residence on Larchwood Court at around 7:50 a.m. on March 19.

Responding officers found Jasiyah Vasquez lying on the living room with a single gunshot wound to her chest. She was pronounced dead on the scene. 

Dr. Ian Hood, a forensic pathologist with the Montgomery County Coroner’s Office, performed an autopsy on the body and determined the cause of death was a single gunshot wound to the chest and the manner of death was homicide.

The Montgomery County Detective Bureau and Upper Providence Police found the mother of the children, Daisy Vasquez, asked her son Jah’sir to go outside to her car to get a 9 mm handgun that was legally registered to her.

The home surveillance video recovered by detectives shows the shooting, prosecutors noted. 

Police said the footage showed Jah’sir entering the house with the handgun in his right hand and then pointing it at Jasiyah. Seconds later, while Jah’sir had the gun pointed in his sister’s direction, it discharged and Jasiyah collapsed.

“We followed the evidence in this case, which clearly showed that the 13-year-old shot and killed his sister. Despite the child’s age, Pennsylvania law requires that we charge Jah’sir Vasquez in adult criminal court for the shooting death of his sister,” District Attorney Kevin Steele said in a statement.

Jah’sir Vasquez was charged with third-degree murder and related charges.

He was arraigned before Magisterial District Court Judge Cathleen Kelly Rebar, who denied bail and ordered that the teen be held at the Montgomery County Juvenile Detention Center. The case remains under investigation.