UPDATE: We have rectified the headline for clarity. Noah Crooks “attempted” to rape his mom and has not actually done…
UPDATE: We have rectified the headline for clarity. Noah Crooks “attempted” to rape his mom and has not actually done the act. Headline has been changed, but the deed is still despicable nonetheless)
A 14 year old Osage, Iowa boy is on trial for shooting and killing his mother, Gretchen Crooks, last March. The jury in the case recently heard the 911 call where Noah Crooks described to a dispatcher how he shot his mother after she took away his copy of Call of Duty saying, “Something just came over me.”
The jury also heard how the 14 year old attempted to rape his 37 year old mother but couldn’t do it saying, “I feel crazy and I know I’m not. I think I have some form of ADD…I tried to rape her. I tried to rape her but I couldn’t do it…Who tries to rape their own mom? My life is down the drain now.”
When police arrived on the scene, Gretchen Crooks’ body was found stretched out on a couch with her pajama top undone and was naked from the waist down. Deputies seized the murder weapon, a .22 caliber rifle which was given to the boy by his mother when he was 11 years old.
Noah Crooks’ attorney is not denying that his client killed his mother, but claims the boy suffered what he referred to as a “tumor of rage” which essentially rendered him insane at the time of the killing. In his address to the jury, the defense also said that a child psychiatrist will testify Crooks suffers from ‘intermittent explosive disorder’ – a mental illness marked by repeated episodes of impulsive, aggressive or violent behavior.
After the shooting the boy texted his Father, William Crooks, saying, “‘Dad this is Noah. I killed Mom accidentally, I regret it. Come home now please.” The Father of the boy dismissed the text as a joke, only to find out 20 minutes later from the sheriff’s deputy that the slaying had indeed occurred. During his testimony, the father said that his son did once say that he wanted to kill his mother, but he didn’t take the threat seriously and there is no history of domestic abuse or criminal records associated with any of the Crooks family members.
Apparently, the father’s Facebook page shows his interest in the US Concealed Carry association as well as the Springfield Armory, a company that sells pistols and rifles.
Residents in the rural town of 3,622 people have been rocked by the slaying, the first since 1898.