Charges: Teen had been 'showing off' with gun before fatal shooting of 15-year-old
The person responsible for fatally shooting a teen girl in Columbia Heights last week is a 16-year-old boy who'd been "showing off" with his gun before it fired, striking the victim.
The 16-year-old from Minneapolis was charged Tuesday with second-degree manslaughter in connection with Derryanna Deashia Davis' March 24 killing. Davis, just 15 years old, was struck by a bullet while at an apartment on the 3900 block of 3rd Street NE in Columbia Heights.
Authorities said she died at the scene.
The Anoka County Attorney's Office is seeking to have the 16-year-old suspect tried as an adult. (Bring Me The News does not typically name juvenile suspects unless they have been certified as an adult in the case.)
The juvenile petition filed against the 16-year-old indicates he had been showing off and playing with a gun just prior to the shooting. At one point, while he, Davis and six other teens were hanging out together at the apartment, he pointed the weapon toward Davis — and the gun fired.
The 16-year-old then ran from the scene.
The two remaining witnesses at the apartment when authorities arrived said Davis had been struck by a bullet that had been fired from outside. But crime scene investigators quickly pieced together the shot had come from inside the apartment, and ended up speaking to all six teens who weren't directly involved in the shooting.
According to the witnesses, the 16-year-old, a male friend of his and some others had been at a Wendy's prior to the shooting, and while there, the 16-year-old and his friend were "showing off" that they had guns, the complaint states. They then went to the Columbia Heights apartment.
The six teens provided somewhat conflicting statements about what happened just before Davis was shot.
Some witnesses said the 16-year-old was "playing with the gun, swinging it around and pointing it at the group." Others said he only ever pointed the gun at Davis, according to the petition. At one point however another teen, worried about the 16-year-old's behavior with the weapon, took the gun from him, pulled out the magazine and put it on a dresser.
But the 16-year-old retrieved it, reloaded it and made a comment suggesting the others should dare him to fire a shot, while pointing it at Davis, the charges allege.
That's when the gun went off, hitting Davis in her upper back.
At the scene, investigators found a Glock with no clip, but a single spent shell casing still inside the chamber.
The Anoka County Attorney's Office says the 16-year-old has a court hearing scheduled for April 26.
