A 15-year-old boy has been charged with 2nd Degree Murder and Use of a Firearm During the Commission of a Felony for killing a man who investigators say was viciously attacking his mother inside their Virginia home Tuesday afternoon.

Investigators have identified the man as the mother’s boyfriend, 37-year-old John Conroy Jr. Capt. Jeff Pearce said earlier that day, Conroy and his 36-year-old girlfriend got into an argument that “lasted for hours”. Conroy then physically attacked her while the woman’s son watched.

“At that point, the 15-year-old son went to a place in the home where he knew there was a firearm,” Spotsylvania Sheriff’s spokesman Capt. Jeff Pearce said .”[He] took a semiautomatic firearm from a nearby location in the room and fired several shots at Conroy, striking him multiple times.”

The woman was treated for non-life threatening injuries.

Detectives, in consultation with the Spotsylvania Commonwealth Attorney’s Office, filed petitions for the arrest of the teenager who fired the shots that killed Conroy, Pearce said, and that under Virginia law, all homicides are considered second-degree murder.

“When the investigation is concluded the Commonwealth’s Attorney can do everything from raising it to a more serious charge, lessening it to a less severe count or dismissing it all together,” Pearce added.

“The investigation is still in the early stages and is ongoing. A myriad of evidentiary items, statements, interviews and further investigative assignments are underway,” Spotsylvania Sheriff Roger L. Harris said.

The 15-year-old boy is currently being held at the Rappahanock Regional Jail with no word on if or when he could be released on bond.