A 10-year-old Dayton boy has been charged with raping a five-year-old boy while they played video games, leaving parents and officials alike wondering how this tragedy could have occurred.

The Herald-News has chosen not to identify the parents of these two boys because of the especially sensitive nature of the alleged crime. We will identify them only as Mr. and Mrs. D and Ms. S.

On June 16, Mrs. D went shopping, leaving her five-year-old son at their North Market Street apartment with her husband. Mr. D decided to go to Shop-Rite grocery store at about 7 p.m., leaving his son at home playing video games in his room with the 10-year-old boy. The older boy had played with their son on several previous occasions while staying with his aunt across the street, according to Mrs. D.

When Mr. D returned home at about 7:30 p.m., he went into his son's bedroom and found him lying facedown on the bed with his pants pulled down and the older boy lying on top of him, according to police reports.

Mr. D. pulled the older boy off his son and went to tell his mother, Ms. S, what had happened. Mrs. D says she arrived home shortly afterward and found a group of people standing in the parking lot of the apartment complex. Ms. S says she approached Mrs. D to apologize for her son. But Mrs. D says that Ms. S "threatened to knock my teeth out and kill me."

Mrs. D went into their apartment where her husband told her what he had seen. She then took her son, intending to go to the Rhea County Sheriff's Department to report the incident. She also reportedly told Ms. S to meet her there.

But Ms. S blocked Mrs. D from leaving by standing behind her car and then threw gravel into the car, striking both mother and son, according to police reports. Mrs. D says she hit Ms. S twice with her car while attempting to leave the parking lot.

While mother and son drove to the sheriff's department and eventually to Rhea Medical Center, Ms. S lay down in the parking lot. Someone placed a pillow under her head and called for an ambulance. But after she was transported to RMC by Rhea Ambulance, Ms. S refused treatment and returned home, according to Dayton Patrolman Darrell Bell.

The Dayton Police Department took over the investigation because the alleged assault occurred inside the city limits.

The older boy readily admitted to police that he had sexually assaulted the five-year-old and said he had "learned how to do it by watching his mother and father," according to Bell's report.

Mrs. D says her son later told her this wasn't the first time the older boy had assaulted him. The older boy told her son his father would take away his Nintendo 64® and Playstation® games if he told his parents about it, she says.

A petition for rape of a child was issued by Rhea County Juvenile Court against the 10-year-old at the request of Mrs. D. Juvenile Court Judge Jimmy McKenzie released the boy to his mother's custody and scheduled a court hearing for July 1.

The tender age of both the alleged assailant and his victim has left police and parents shaking their heads and seeking answers about why and how this happened.

"This is one of the most difficult cases I've ever had to deal with," said Dayton Police Investigator Billy Cranfield, who has taken over the investigation. "Usually it's adults or teenagers. You sort of get used to that. But this is just kids. That's different."

Cranfield said he expects, because of the older boy's age, that he probably won't be incarcerated but will be required to receive counseling and may be assigned a probation officer.

Mrs. D says she is concerned for the alleged assailant as well as her own son.

"My son can't sleep well. He wakes up in the middle of the night now," she said. "I hold him and rock him and tell him he didn't do anything wrong. It wasn't his fault.

"My son is going to counseling over this. My son is a victim, but that boy's a victim too. That kid didn't know no better. What adults do reflects on these kids. I don't want to see any family torn apart over this, but I want him to get some help.

"Where is the justice for these kids? I can't believe they let that boy right back out on the street. He needs help. It's a shame. I cry for that child as well as my own."

Mrs. D says she doesn't understand why the court released the 10-year-old back to his mother, that she has frequently been in jail, and the boy's father is in jail right now. "How is that boy going to learn any better in that home?" she asked.

Local law enforcement officials say they cannot remember such a serious crime ever being committed by such as young child in Rhea County.