DA: Beaumont Boy Charged With Manslaughter In Other Boy’s Death

BEAUMONT – A 12-year-old Beaumont boy will not be charged with murder in the shooting death of his 12-year-old friend last week, as police had originally sought.

On Monday, the Riverside County district attorney’s office charged the boy with involuntary manslaughter, assault with a firearm and unlawful possession of a concealable firearm related his friend’s death Thursday morning, Riverside County district attorney’s spokesman John Hall said. State law prohibits juveniles younger than 14 from being tried as adults.

The suspect is not being identified by name because he is a minor.

Beaumont police originally arrested the boy on suspicion of murder after Moises Gonzalez was shot and killed inside the boy’s home in Beaumont.

District attorney’s officials did not file a murder charge because there was “insufficient evidence of an intentional killing or that the boy was subjectively aware of the dangerousness and consequences of his actions,” Hall said.