Police have said that it was not an accident that a nine-year-old autistic girl shot dead her seven-year-old brother.

The young girl killed her brother after her parents left the two children in their Arkansas apartment briefly to sign a lease, a police spokesman has confirmed. Little Rock Police spokesman Lieutenant Terry Hastings added that the killing was not an accident, but refused to offer any further details of the tragic incident.

The nine-year-old girl initially told police investigators that two men had come into the apartment and shot her brother. However, there was no evidence of forced entry, and her father later explained that the girl had autism and often made up stories.

The girl cannot be charged with a crime under Arkansas law due to her young age, and investigators have not offered any comment about whether anyone else could possibly be held responsible.

It is believed that the girl obtained the firearm from her father's case that was stored in a bedroom, police have indicated.

It has been claimed that the parents left "approximately five minutes earlier and had locked the front door upon leaving," the police report has described.

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It is not clear whether the girl's autism played a part in the killing, and the girl's name cannot be published due to her age.

The boy's father, however, posted a message on his Facebook account openly grieving for his son: "I need you buddy. I miss you so bad, this isn't getting any easier. I can only live minute by minute without you."