13-Year-Old Charged With Murdering 5-Year-Old In Pittsburgh Said He Was Wrestling With Victim

PITTSBURGH (AP) _ A 13-year-old is accused of killing a 5-year-old in the home where they both lived, a death the teen said happened while he was practicing wrestling moves on the boy.

The teenager told investigators he was practicing wrestling moves on Tyeir Bruce on Thursday when he became unresponsive, police said. He initially said the boy had fallen down stairs, authorities said.

The boy died at a hospital, and a medical examiner ruled the death a homicide. 

The victim's multiple bruises and internal injuries were not consistent with someone who had fallen down steps, according to police Cmdr. Thomas Stangrecki.

The younger boy's mother was not at home at the time. A man who was baby-sitting the boys was in a different part of the house, Stangrecki said.

The teenager, whose name was not released because of his age, was charged with criminal homicide Friday and taken to the county's juvenile detention center.

The two boys are not related, but lived in the same house, police said.

In 2001, a 12-year-old boy in Florida became the youngest person in the U.S. to be sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of killing a 6-year-old girl on whom he said he was practicing wrestling moves he had seen on TV. A court overturned the conviction two years later and allowed him to plead guilty to a lesser charge and be placed on probation.