DA: Beaudry faces lesser charge in dad's death

QUINCY, Mass. (AP) -- A 20-year-old Weymouth man has been indicted on a lesser charge of manslaughter in the death of his father last month.

The Norfolk district attorney's office said Michael Beaudry also was indicted Thursday on one count of assault and battery of his father in a 2012 incident.

Beaudry pleaded not guilty to a murder charge in the death of 58-year-old Ronald Beaudry. Beaudry's attorney said then his client should be facing a lesser charge.

Prosecutors said Michael Beaudry fired a BB gun inside their home Feb. 4 and his father followed him outside to be sure he didn't fire again. The son then allegedly hit his father with a piece of PVC pipe. The father fell, striking his head on pavement.

Authorities say Michael Beaudry desperately tended to his father and begged emergency workers to save him.