New Information in Case of Teen Accused of Killing Grandmother
We have new information in the tragic shooting death of a Harborcreek grandmother, allegedly at the hands of her 14-year-old grandson. A neighbor says she heard shots and saw the teen with a weapon, the day before the murder.
It's a stunning sad story, involving a boy, a weapon and his grandmother and legal guardian who was trying to take Hunter Riley Reeser to a scheduled meeting with a school counselor. The teen is now charged as an adult in the shooting death of his 60-year-old grandmother Sandra Orton.
Sandra and her husband Bobbie Orton left their home in the 9000 block of Sawmill Road, to go to their jobs early Tuesday morning, August 23. He left for a farm in North East, at 6:00 a.m. She went to work at 5:00 a.m., at Electric Materials Corp., also in North East.
Police say Mrs. Orton came home before 8:00 a.m. as planned to take her grandson to that school meeting. She entered the home, told her grandson to finish getting ready, then went to wait in the car. That's when police believe Hunter fired a gun from the porch, into the car, hitting his grandmother in the head, and fatally wounding her.
According to a search warrant, police recovered both live and spent .22 caliber rounds from the underside of the porch, a Winchester .22 pump rifle, plus a gun cabinet and locks from the basement. They also took the grandmother's vehicle a 2004 Nissan Xterra, her cell phone, documents from Harbor Creek School District, a laptop and desktop computer, and other items into evidence.
The suspect's grandfather Bobbie Orton, told investigators, his grandson was familiar with four weapons kept in the house, but because in his words "Reeser has issues" those weapons were doubled locked and the ammunition locked in a separate box.
In the affidavit of probable cause, Moorheadville road neighbor Kathleen Walczak, told police between 12:00 and 12:15 p.m. the day before the murder she heard gunfire near the Orton residence and saw a person she identified as Hunter Reeser, carrying a rifle with a brown stock and black barrel, leaving the creek area and heading toward his house.
It's unclear if that's the gun Hunter Reeser allegedly used Tuesday to take the life of his grandmother. Police indicate he was the last one to see her alive, when he called 9-1-1, to report her bleeding in the front seat of the car. He also noted that the rear passenger window was broken out. The affidavit says the teen held the phone up to his grandmother so the 9-1-1 operator could hear her gasping for breath.
Hunter Reeser is behind bars in the Erie County Prison, without bond. The deputy warden says he is being kept separately from the adult population.