On February 1, 2008, thirteen-year-old Gregory Browning was found shot to death in his bed in Cockeysville, Maryland, one of four family members killed in what investigators described as a calculated familicide. Gregory’s parents, John and Tamara Browning, and his younger brother Benjamin also died of gunshot wounds at the family home.

The oldest son, fifteen-year-old Nicholas Waggoner Browning, initially placed a 911 call reporting his father dead but later confessed after police questioned him. He told investigators he shot each family member while they slept, then discarded his father’s handgun in nearby bushes and spent time at a friend’s house before returning and reporting the deaths.

Nicholas Browning was charged as an adult with four counts of first-degree murder, pleaded guilty, and in January 2009 received four consecutive life sentences. Defense claims of abuse and later appeals for a reduced sentence were raised in the case.