Family: Teen Who Shot Dad Has Autism

Son who killed city commissioner talked about killing dad: neighbor

The teen son charged with shooting and killing his city commissioner father has a mild form of autism according to some of the politician's friends.

17-year-old Jason Beckman was arrested Sunday on a manslaughter charge after he reportedly blasted his father, Jay Beckman, a South Miami City Commissioner, with a shotgun as his father was showering

During a court hearing yesterday, the teen's grandmother said he was diagnosed at a young age with Asperger's syndrome, a mild form of Autism.

Friends of the Beckman family described South Miami High School junior as extremely shy, awkward and often angry.

"There was roughness and anger in this child," Eda Harris, a family friend, told the Miami Herald. "Jay would say he just needs love. He will grow out of it."

Beckman was ordered to stay 21 days at the Miami-Dade Juvenile Detention Center during Monday's hearing. Prosecutors are still deciding whether to charge him as an adult.

The teen told police he was showing the gun to his father when it accidentially went off, but at least one neighbor said he often talked of killing his father.

"Jason confessed to me on occasion wanting to take his father's life. Detailed plans on how to go about it," neighbor  Janelle Syren said. "It felt as though he'd really thought it through as if he really wanted something like this and it's very disturbing...very unnerving. I wish I'd said something before."

South Miami Mayor Horace Feliu said Jay Beckman had confided in him that his son was painfully shy and found it difficult to make friends, but never told him of the Autism diagnosis.

"I stated to him that most teenage boys do go through a stage where they are very shy," Feliu told the Herald. "I told him I, myself, was shy at one point. He will eventually overcome that."

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