A horrible thing happened. A woman in Oakland was shot to death. Someone was arrested and charged with her murder—her 18 year old grandson.

Oakland teen arrested in shooting death of grandmother
An 18-year-old from Oakland was charged today with murder for the shooting death of a 58-year-old grandmother in West Oakland last week, according to Assistant District Attorney Tom Rogers. Leon Patterson is scheduled to be arraigned at 2 p.m. today in… (Read more…)

While 18 is technically a teenager, “teenager” tends to imply something younger than an adult. Technically anyone over 18 in CA is an adult. The word teenager in this instance is manipulative, surfacing stronger feelings of tragedy due to the age factor, and somehow trying to make excuses as well—because we all know that only adults can kill someone and really mean it.

Blech. I need to take a shower after reading that.