Prosecutors revealed that the 16-year-old son of assistant pastor and former NFL linebacker Antonio Armstrong allegedly murdered his parents while they were sleeping at home and then told police a masked intruder was the one who did it, the Daily Mail Online reports.
Armstrong and his wife Dawn, both 42, were found shot in bed at their Bellaire, Texas home around 2.15 a.m. on Friday, with a pillow placed over each of their faces, according to the prosecutors.
Dawn was already dead when the police came after their teen son, who has been charged with murder, called 911 around 1.40 a.m. while hiding in the closet.
Antonio was found with a gunshot wound to the head and was rushed to the hospital, where he later died.
The son, identified by local media as Antonio Armstrong Jr., or A.J. Armstrong, told the emergency dispatcher he had seen a masked man inside their home and then hid in a closet on the house's third floor, according to prosecutors.
Antonio's handgun, which was the one used to kill the pastor and Texas A&M football star, was found by police on the kitchen counter, according to KTRK.
Next to it was a note that read: "I've been watching you."
The teen denied any involvement in the murders, and many members of his family showed up to support him in court on Monday.
Houston police said they had yet to determine a motive. However, the police officers who were first at the crime scene said they immediately became sceptical of the teen's claim of an intruder having perpetrated the double murder after the teen turned off an expensive security system to let them in, the prosecutors said.
The officers also found no signs of forced entry, according to KHOU.
Moreover, the couple's 12-year-old daughter was not awoken by any noise and slept through the night in her second-floor bedroom.
Investigators also disclosed that the teen son admitted having experimented on how to silence gunfire using blankets and pillows just last week, ABC 13 reported.
Antonio Armstrong was assistant pastor at the Spirit and Life Kingdom Center church in southwest Houston, which is led by his mother, Pastor Kay Shorter. Antonio and Dawn were also involved in the church's marriage ministry.
On Sunday, two days after the tragedy, Shorter delivered a sermon, telling her congregation not to believe "the lie" that her son's death "is the will of God," according to the Houston Chronicle.
"God doesn't take life. He gives life," she said.
Shorter said she doesn't know why her son and daughter-in-law were killed but that she had made "the decision to bless the Lord ... when there's good news ... (and when) tears are running down my face."
She told local station ABC13 her son "was just that loving kind gracious young man and my daughter, she was the same way. She was so giving and loving and caring."
