DETROIT – A 13-year-old Detroit boy has been charged with involuntary manslaughter for shooting a 14-year-old boy behind a vacant house on the city's east side.
The Wayne County Prosecutor's Office said the boy is being charged as a juvenile. He also faces charges of careless discharge causing death and felony firearm.
The boy was with the 14-year-old, Frederick Austin, and three other youths Tuesday night on Radnor Street when he allegedly discharged the gun, the Prosecutor's Office said.
Austin was killed.
Police have not said who the gun belongs to. It was recovered at the scene.
Another senseless death of a 14-year-old young man," said Detroit Police Chief James Craig.
It was about 7:30 p.m. Tuesday when police responded to a call about shots fired.
"Two teenagers ... we have one account that it may have been over a dispute. Not certain. It could have been that someone had possession of a gun and it was an accidental shooting," said Craig.
The mother of the accused teen shooter said this was an accident. She said her son was Austin's best friend.
"He was like my other son," Gaybrell Bennett said. "He was always over, spending the night and stuff. They were best friends."
Bennett said the boys probably had the gun because they had been bullied and felt like they needed to protect themselves.
The next door neighbors were having a birthday barbecue when they heard a commotion, some profanity and then two shots.
"We didn't think nothing of it but then we heard the kids back there crying and screaming," neighbor Paige Smith said.
Neighbors also said the house has been a problem for months, with kids having sex, smoking pot and fighting. Police have responded to the home before.
"They done called numerous times about that house and the kids being back there and it took someone losing his life for them to care," Smith said.
Local 4 learned in court Wednesday the alleged shooter, a seventh-grader, had been using marijuana.
