13-year-old boy charged in mom's death

A 13-year-old Beaver County boy turned his stepfather's shotgun on his own mother Friday, killing her with blasts to the head and chest, police said.

Gary A. Beck, an eighth-grader at Ambridge Area Junior High School, was charged with criminal homicide in the fatal shooting of Lee Ann Nauman, 31, of Friel Road, Economy Borough.

Police arrested Beck about a half-mile from the family's house — near the intersection of Cliff and Walrose Heights roads — toting a backpack filled with bread. A short time earlier, police said they received a 911 call from Beck telling them that his mother had been shot. Police found Nauman dead in the hallway.

According to a police affidavit, Beck admitted to the crime. Police said they have no motive.

Neighbors said Lee Ann Nauman and her husband, David Nauman — Beck's stepfather — had a 14-month-old child, who police said was in the house when Nauman was killed.

Beck had been suspended from school since Tuesday after holding shotgun shell casings to other students' faces and saying "bang, bang" on a school bus, police said. Police charged him with disorderly conduct and he was indefinitely suspended from school, Economy police Lt. Dale Gatehouse said.

A boy who described himself as one of Beck's only friends was shocked.

"When you look at him, he doesn't look like the type of kid that would do that," said Kevin Rosinsky, 13, a fellow-eighth grader at the junior high school. "He was a quiet kid. I was pretty much the only kid he ever talked to."

A neighbor who said she was close with the family and spent Christmas Eve with them said she never saw any signs of trouble.

"I don't understand what happened," she said. "You always have a sense. My dog loved him. When she saw him at the bus she'd pull me to him. And, you know, animals always have a sense."

The neighbor said David Nauman, a contractor in Cranberry, was a hunter. Police said the .12-gauge shotgun used by Beck belonged to his stepfather and was the only gun in the house.

Police said they had no dealings with the boy before this week.

Gatehouse said Beck recently had been kicked off the wrestling team because of poor grades and also had been removed from the school bus before. Beck also played junior high football, police said.

Gatehouse said he talked to Lee Ann Nauman on Tuesday for an hour at her home after the bus incident. "She thought he was doing much better. She was a great woman. She told me, 'I am doing my best with him.'"

Neighbors struggled to comprehend it all yesterday.

"He was a little bit troubled, I guess," Michael Shomin said. "That's a shame to kill his own mother, and they have a little baby. Oh, my God."

"He has a baby a little over a year old and all of a sudden, no wife and no stepson," Eloise Hedzik said. "Things like that just don't happen. Its a quiet neighborhood. It's very sad"

Economy police Chief Tom Harrington said there had not been a murder in the borough since 1981, and then the culprit was a 15-year-old boy.

Beck is being held in the Beaver County Jail without bond. His preliminary hearing is scheduled Thursday at the Beaver County Courthouse.