Boy Accidentally Kills Twin While Playing With Revolver

A 13-year-old North Hollywood boy accidentally shot and killed his twin brother while they were engaged in “a tug of war” over a pistol a baby-sitter left behind, police and the baby-sitter said.

Rory Bone, a student at Madison Jr. High School in North Hollywood, was found lying in the family room, shot once in the head with a revolver at the home of a family friend in the 8000block of Wilkinson Avenue, police said.

A man who answered the door at the home refused to give his name, but he identified himself as the family friend who had been baby-sitting the twins and their sister. He said he had told the boys not to touch the gun before he had to leave them Saturday night.

“I went through the whole speech in front of their mother,” he said. “My philosophy is don’t be afraid of it, but don’t abuse it. I guess that’s the wrong philosophy now. It was a stupid, tragic mistake.”

The baby-sitter said the boys were “like any brothers. They fought and they loved.”

He said he intended to take the gun with him and had put it under a coffee table. But he forgot the gun just before leaving when he found one of the children playing with a computer and scolded the child.

“I forgot about the gun and left,” he said.

Police declined to give details of the shooting incident, but the baby-sitter said the boys were engaged in a tug of war with the gun.

“One of them pulled the gun and the other one pulled it back,” he said.

No arrests have been made, police said, but investigators will refer the case to the district attorney’s office for review.