His attorney said he will seek to move the case from adult court to juvenile court.
NEW BLOOMFIELD, Pa. — An 11-year-old boy accused of fatally shooting his father inside their central Pennsylvania home waived his first court hearing Thursday, appearing in handcuffs and surrounded by officers as his lawyer said he will try to move the case into juvenile court.
The child, Clayton Dietz, is charged as an adult with criminal homicide in the death of his father, Douglas Dietz, 42, in Duncannon, a small borough along the Susquehanna River. The brief appearance did not address evidence in open court, but it set the early tone for a case that has drawn attention because of the defendant’s age and the decision to file the most serious charge in adult court.
Dietz arrived at the Perry County Courthouse in New Bloomfield just after noon for a scheduled 1:30 p.m. preliminary hearing that was waived. He was handcuffed and in restraints as he walked with probation officers. A reporter at the courthouse said the boy told his mother the handcuffs hurt. Roughly 15 people watched the short proceeding, and the family did not speak to the media afterward.
His attorney, Dave Wilson, said outside the courthouse that he plans to ask the court to handle the case in the juvenile system. “My goal is going to be to try to get him into juvenile court,” Wilson said. Wilson declined to discuss details of the case beyond that approach. Prosecutors have not publicly laid out a timeline for when they expect to present evidence, and no future court dates were set during the hearing.
The criminal complaint and affidavit described a shooting inside the family’s home on South Market Street in Duncannon during the early morning hours in January. Investigators said Clayton Dietz found a revolver after getting access to a gun safe while he was looking for his Nintendo Switch, which had been taken away from him. The documents say he shot his father while he slept in bed next to his wife, Jillian Dietz, who told investigators she woke to a loud noise and later realized her husband was bleeding.
According to the affidavit, Jillian Dietz said she nudged her husband when she woke up, but he did not respond. She told investigators she then heard what sounded like water dripping and turned on a light, realizing it was blood. She also told investigators that when Clayton entered the room she shouted words to the effect of “Daddy’s dead,” and the boy ran downstairs yelling that his father was dead.
Troopers said they found Douglas Dietz lying on his back with an apparent gunshot wound to the head. While troopers spoke with Jillian Dietz and the child in the kitchen, an investigator reported hearing the boy say, “I killed Daddy.” The affidavit also says the boy later told his mother, “I killed my dad. I hate myself.” Authorities noted injuries on the child, including a contusion above his left eye and a small cut near his lower lip, though the publicly available records do not fully explain how those injuries happened.
The records describe a family night that turned into a fatal incident. Jillian Dietz told investigators she went to bed shortly after midnight after the family sang “Happy Birthday” to the child. She said Douglas Dietz came to bed a short time later. The shooting happened later that night, and emergency crews were called to the home in the hours before dawn.
Investigators said the child told them he got angry after being told he needed to go to bed. He said he located keys to the gun safe while searching for the game console and believed it might be stored inside. The documents say he took the revolver from the safe, loaded it, pulled back the hammer and fired at his father. In an interview described in the affidavit, investigators asked what he thought would happen when he fired the gun, and he said he was mad and had not considered what would happen.
The case now sits at an early stage, with the waived preliminary hearing leaving key questions to be decided later in filings and court arguments rather than in testimony. A preliminary hearing is typically where prosecutors show they have enough evidence to move forward, often through witnesses such as investigators. Waiving it can speed the path toward the next steps while both sides prepare for legal motions, including disputes over what court system should handle the case.
That fight over venue may shape what happens next as much as the facts of the shooting. Wilson has said his priority is juvenile court, which focuses on rehabilitation and has different sentencing limits and procedures than adult criminal court. Prosecutors, by filing the charge in adult court, signaled they view the allegation as one that warrants adult handling under state law, though the court ultimately may weigh factors that include age, circumstances of the offense and the child’s background.
Those debates also come as communities across the country continue to confront how easily children can access firearms inside homes. In this case, the publicly described evidence centers on a gun safe, a key the child allegedly found, and a revolver that investigators say he used. Court documents have described the Nintendo Switch as a focal point of the child’s search that night, but they do not fully answer why the safe key was accessible or how the household’s firearm storage routine worked on a daily basis.
Duncannon is a borough of a few thousand people in Perry County, about 20 miles northwest of Harrisburg. The shooting has rippled through local institutions that rarely see a homicide charge of this magnitude, much less one involving a child. Beyond the criminal case, it leaves a family facing the death of a father and the detention of a son, with relatives and neighbors drawn into a court process that can stretch months.
For now, the child remains in custody. After Thursday’s appearance, he was returned to the Perry County Prison, authorities said. The decision to hold an 11-year-old in a county facility has added another layer of scrutiny to the case, even as officials have provided limited public comment about detention arrangements and security measures.
Legal proceedings are expected to continue in the coming months, with attorneys anticipating the next court appearance later this spring. Wilson has said he expects the case to return to court in May, though the court did not set a date on Thursday. The next major milestones could include filings seeking transfer to juvenile court, hearings on that request, and future scheduling that would determine whether the case moves toward trial or another resolution in adult court.
Thursday’s scene in New Bloomfield offered only brief glimpses of the child at the center of the case. Witnesses said he wore a dark hoodie and walked in restraints, looking unsteady as he moved through the courthouse. The family kept silent as cameras waited outside, while the attorney spoke only about procedure and the path he wants the case to take.
As the case progresses, the public record is likely to expand through motions, additional affidavits and testimony that has not yet been heard in open court. Until then, the most detailed account remains the affidavit’s description of the hours leading up to the shooting and the statements investigators say they heard in the home.
Author note: Last updated February 20, 2026.