“We all want to know why”: Aunt speaks after nephew charged with murdering his grandfather, shooting his grandmother

CAYCE, S.C. (WIS) - A Cayce teenager is currently being held at the Juvenile Detention Center in Columbia after being charged with murdering his grandfather and shooting at his grandmother.

The shooting happened on Friday at the grandparents’ home in the 1400 block of Sunnyside Drive. That is one mile from the Cayce Department of Public Safety.

RELATED STORY: Grandfather killed, grandmother shot by grandson in Lexington County

Amanda Turney said her heart sank when she heard this news.

She is the teenager’s aunt. The victim, 66-year-old Raymond Toler, is her stepfather, and Toler’s wife is her mother.

“I would’ve never thought in a million years that he would’ve done something like this,” Turney said.

Turney and her mother are now left with unimaginable grief and unanswered questions.

“We all want to know why,” she said.

Turney says the teenager, who is 13 years old, lived with his grandparents, and that they rarely ever fought or argued.

“Any time I was around him, he seemed fine,” she said. “Laughing, giggling, wanting to play, something. I never knew that he had some kind of an issue going on.”

WIS asked Turney if her mother has any idea what led to this.

She said Toler confronted his grandson about a low math grade, and was attempting to take away his PlayStation video game console.

“Next thing mom knew, she said she heard a pop, pop, pop, pop or whatever, and then she thought it was from the electronics,” Turney said. “And she said when she went to get up to go in there, that’s when she saw what she saw, and then he tried to shoot at her and missed and then he beat her.”

The teenager, Turney said, then beat his grandmother with the gun, and she has bruises all over her body. She has since been released from the hospital.

“She’s doing about the best that she can right now,” Turney said. “The best that anybody can do right now. It’s going to be a long recovery for her because he ruined all of our lives. And my mom was beat up pretty bad. There’s a lot of questions and answers that we may or may not be able to get from my nephew.”

Turney said her stepfather, Toler, was a really good man who will be missed by many.

“He’s one of those guys that would take the shirt off his back to give to somebody if they needed it,” Turney said.

Turney said her mother is now trying to piece together how her grandson got a hold of the gun, which she said was locked in a safe under her bed.

WIS reached out to the 11th Circuit Solicitor’s Office to ask if the teenager would be tried as an adult.

The office did not respond.

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