Bresha Meadows, Ohio Teen Guilty of Killing Abusive Father, Returns Home

Bresha Meadows had shot her father in the head, while he slept when she was 14 years old. The African-American teen from Ohio said that her father had physically and verbally abused her and her siblings. She apparently shot him with the same gun that he used to threaten them. The 16-year-old has now been released from a mental health facility.

Her mother Brandi, said that her husband used to beat her in front of her children, and that her daughter was a hero in her eyes. She said that her daughter saved the family. “She helped me,” Brandi said in an interview at the time. “She helped all of us so we could have a better life.”

In the months leading up to the murder, Bresha had begun cutting herself, her grades started falling. She told her aunts that she was afraid her father might kill them all.

Prosecutors tried to charge Bresha for aggravated murder, and if convicted she would have to go to prison. However, since she was just a child, they backed down. She pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and spent 10 months in prison and another two months in juvenile detention. Bresha was then allowed to serve a truncated sentence in a mental health facility, where she spent 6 months and returned to her family on Sunday.

“She lived a life no child, no adult, no human being should ever have to endure. She grew up in an environment where every adult failed her. … This did not have to happen,” her lawyer Ian Friedman said.

“Bresha should never have been incarcerated, but it is a win nonetheless. The punishment system was unsuccessful in disappearing this young Black woman,” said the organisers of the #FreeBresha collective. The organisation petitioned to demand her immediate release, saying that she was an unfortunate victim of child abuse and neglect, and did what she did out of desperation.

Her record will be sealed and expunged when she reaches adulthood.  

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