I Just Killed My Dad

Why do you think it's important to tell your story?

Well, it's important 'cause my life is on the line,

and I want people to know that I'm not…

I'm not crazy,

and I'm not a murderer and I'm innocent.

-Hello? -Sheriff's office.

Sheriff's office.

And, what is the emergency?

I killed my dad.

The scariest thing about Anthony is I don't know if he has empathy.

I look at him and I don't see any feelings.

He was definitely shooting to kill, there is no doubt about it.

I couldn't understand why Anthony would do that.

Such a quiet, well-behaved young man.

The kid got anything he asked for.

I think he took an opportunity, and he did something about it.

I don't feel like he's guilty.

I feel like he was pushed to that point, and he was young and he broke.

His father pleaded with Anthony, "Don't shoot me anymore."

And Anthony shoots him two more times.

I don't know the truth.

Not absolutely every bit of it.

There is one person on this planet that knows what happened,

and nobody else does.

911, where is your emergency?

Uh…

I just uh… killed my dad.

Um…

What do I need to tell you?

Uh… You…

So you said you just killed your dad?

Yeah.

Okay, and um… Is he…

Is he still alive, or…?

He might be. I don't know. I shot him like three times, I think.

-You shot him three times? -I'm not sure.

There's blood on the floor, so I know he's been shot once.

-I shot three times at him. -Okay…

He's on the ground.

All right, and what's your name?

Anthony Joseph Templet.

I'm an assistant district attorney and I'm the chief of litigation here.

The first time that I heard about Anthony Templet,

it came across my phone because we'd get emails all the time

when there's… there's a homicide.

I just remember thinking "Oh, that's sad.

You know, it's just, any time, you know, a son kills a father

it's something very unusual and it's a sad thing.

And listening to the 911 call was disturbing.

And I thought, "Hm…"

"Gosh. That-- His affect is so flat."

I hear sirens.

You hear the deputies coming?

Yeah.

This was the first time I've come to this neighborhood for a major incident.

There's some places that you don't expect to get phone calls

or dispatches of that type.

And this was… is one of those neighborhoods.

He's waiting outside. What color are you waiting in?

I'm outside.

I'm in blue gym shorts and a gray shirt.

Yeah…

Dispatch told us that the subject said that

the firearm was inside the residence, but you don't take that for granted.

You're always going to get out with the precautions that that person is armed.

Where exactly are you waiting?

By the road, by the mailboxes.

Hands in the air!

He was very compliant.

He did exactly what he was told to do.

He wasn't crying.

Almost no emotions.

For the type of dispatch, yeah, that is odd.

I didn't understand what was going on.

I thought they needed to cuff me for a second,

so that they could figure out what was going on

and then they'd let me go, but it didn't go that way.

We went down the driveway through the carport in the back door,

which led into the kitchen.

I saw one revolver laying on the kitchen island with the hammer cocked back,

and the barrel was facing the entryway into the kitchen.

We made it through the kitchen, making sure that nobody else was in the house.

When I get into the master bedroom…

…located another firearm,

laying on the bed with the hammer back on it.

And it was laying next to a cell phone.

We saw the victim laying there in the hallway.

He was laying there in a puddle of blood, still breathing.

EMS paramedics arrived on the scene.

They immediately move the victim out of the bathroom area.

And they loaded him up and left to the hospital.

Have a seat right there for me, please.

I didn't know how the system worked.

So I figured, "Okay… I'm gonna have to spend a little bit--"

"A couple days in jail."

But they took me down to, like, a holding cell,

and started interrogating me.

When Anthony first arrived at the Violent Crime unit,

he was really calm, he was quiet.

And I informed him that I was the investigator, here to talk to him.

Asked him would he feel like talking about what happened?

He said, "Yes."

Let's start off by um… talking about who live at your house.

Okay, so there's just me and my dad that live there.

And explain y'all's relationship.

Well, it's very off and on.

We've…

We have trouble getting along. And um…

Yeah, I don't really like him.

-You don't? -No.

Could you tell me why?

Well, I don't know. He just holds things over your head.

He said his father would insult him,

call him bad names like a dickhead, or an asshole.

But that was nothing

that would supersede the homicide of his father.

Let's talk about yesterday.

It was pretty normal. Had dinner. It was all good.

And I went to sleep.

And he started looking through my phone in the middle of the night,

and I was like, you know, "Why are you looking through my phone?"

So, like, "What the heck?" And we got into a big argument.

He was accusing me of calling-- Having calls with uh… my stepmother.

Well, why wouldn't he want you to even talk to your stepmom?

Oh, he's in a… I guess they're in a fight or something.

And he doesn't like secrets.

Susan and Burt had separated for six months before.

I was left alone in the house with him.

He wanted to talk to her really bad,

and I guess he just didn't want to feel left out, I guess.

He couldn't find nothing on my phone.

And then he started just yelling and going off about random stuff.

Things went from verbal to physical.

Anthony said that Burt was trying to punch him and grab him.

But Anthony pushed him to the side,

and managed to run out of his room into Burt's room.

I locked the door on him. And he started banging down the door.

I was scared.

I was just scared I was going to get hurt.

I didn't really know what to think.

I'd figured I'd just get some guns to defend myself.

You say, "guns" or "a gun"?

Oh, I grabbed two.

One-- I grabbed two in case one didn't work,

because I'd never shot these guns in so long.

When somebody tell you they have a backup firearms,

they basically at the point that they intend to kill you.

He had told me about past experiences with him using the firearm,

how it was easy to pull the trigger with the hammer pulled back.

Did you warn him? Did you say anything?

"Hey." Did you tell him to stop?

No.

Did you say, "Hey, Dad, I got a gun"?

No-- Oh, he did accuse me.

He was like, "You going to shoot me, motherfucker?"

or something, through the door, and I was like…

And what did you say?

Nothing.

I just kept going-- I just kept getting the guns.

I felt like this was the worst I've ever seen him,

and I didn't see any other way

that this was going to get resolved.

And I felt like my life was really in danger.

Burt apparently was trying to force his way in the room.

There was evidence of that from the crack on the door.

He ended up stunning himself,

and I guess he, like, hit it wrong or something.

Heard a big grunt, or something like that.

He stopped banging on the door, and…

I opened the door…

I ended up shooting him.

In your dad's room, is there another door

to get to another part of the house?

Or is there a window, which you could climb out of?

There's a couple of windows, probably locked.

But I guess I could've opened them and got out.

-Is there a phone in there? -Yeah, there is.

-In the room? -There is.

Anthony had other avenues he could have taken,

but Anthony clearly stated he wanted to end everything.

Was there a choice when you opened that door?

I felt like I didn't.

How did you feel after it happened?

I mean, I felt terrible, but, you know, I didn't see any other way.

I don't believe that Anthony was is any danger.

Anthony stated that Burt tried to physically attack him.

I did not see any bruising or injuries to Anthony

indicative of being involved in a fistic altercation.

Your scene'll tell you a lot of things about an incident.

You talk about a fight or anything like that,

you could see overturned furniture, items that have fell to the floor.

The home was very, very clean.

Nothing was out of order.

There wasn't even a dish in the sink.

Based on information learned, Anthony's statements,

and evidence at the scene,

there was probable cause to arrest Anthony.

He was booked for attempted manslaughter.

I woke up to a homicide call on June third

that my husband was in trauma neurocritical care