By Claudia Cowan, FOX News correspondent

How often do you hear that an 8-year-old child killed two adults, execution style, re-loading as he went?

Minutes after I read about this case of an 8-year-old boy allegedly gunning down his father and another man in Arizona, my photographer Tom Whitaker and I were sent to cover the story. A flight from San Francisco to Phoenix and from there to Flagstaff and a 2.5 hour drive to St. John’s put us into the town at 1:30 a.m. Along with L.A. based producer Lindsay Stewart, we reconvened at 6:00 a.m. to do our live reports from in front of the Apache County Juvenile Detention Center, a plan brick building in the middle of town. Somewhere inside, a frightened little kid awaited an uncertain future. We learned his name but are not reporting it because of his age. If prosecutors who spoke to the New York Times are to be believed, this boy planned a deadly ambush and turned his two-story home in a nice neighborhood into a shooting gallery.

Prosecutors said this child shot both men in the head and chest, four times each, stopping and re-loading after every shot. That sounds like the work of a hired assassin. I tried to square that with the image of a third grader being escorted into a packed courtroom in handcuffs, the shackles wrapped around his waist twice because he’s so small. I wonder if he has any idea what is happening. How could an 8-year-old be expected to participate in his own defense?

The legal issues are murky. Police are reportedly pushing to have the boy tried as an adult, but legal experts say that is highly unlikely. I spoke to neighbors who describe the father as a good man and a loving dad. He’d recently re-married and his wife – now a widow – is described as friendly and caring, and much more available to the 8-year-old than his own mother, who’d moved to Mississippi some years ago. She is back in town, but isn’t talking to reporters. In fact, a gag order imposed by the judge will mean we’ll have to wait until the details of the investigation are revealed in court. The big question as to motive is still unanswered, leaving everyone here asking “why?”

Another sad detail: The father had sole custody, and according to neighbors, he and his only son were close. Neighbors discount suspicions of abuse, and the boy seemed to be doing fine at school. Reportedly, the child has over one hundred relatives in the area. But as of this writing, none of them, nor his mother, nor his step-mother, have come forward to seek custody of the child. As his defense lawyer put it, “we’ve got an 8-year-old client who is sitting in a detention facility who needs someone to take him home, and we haven’t found that person… no one has come forward and indicated they’re willing to take him.”

How heartbreaking. Equally heartbreaking — the funeral for the other victim is now being planned by his wife and two teenage daughters.