DETROIT – Detroit police said a 16-year-old who is charged as an adult with murder went to the home of a 13-year-old boy in the middle of the day and killed him over a stolen cellphone.
The shooting happened around 6:55 p.m. July 26 in the 8320 block of Homer Street in Southwest Detroit, according to authorities.
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Detroit police Chief James White said an iPhone had been stolen a few weeks ago, so Ryan McLeod, 16, of Detroit, got into a car and drove to the location on Homer Street. There were children outside, and McLeod fired multiple shots, the chief said.
“This all started from a cellphone that was perhaps stolen, and a car full of young people decided they would go to this location,” White said. “They saw the victim, 13 years old, out front. Someone in that vehicle -- we believe to be the driver -- fired a shot, striking the victim, and senselessly, he was murdered on the streets, in the middle of the day, in the summer, over a cellphone.”
Police said they found the 13-year-old Detroit boy with a gunshot wound to his back. Medical officials arrived and took him to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
McLeod is charged as an adult with first-degree premeditated murder, felonious assault, and two felony firearm violations.
“I’ve got a 16-year-old whose life is over because he pulled a trigger to settle a dispute over an iPhone. An iPhone,” White said. “His life is over, and a 13-year-old who won’t get a chance to work in Ceasefire, won’t get a chance to be the police chief, the City Council president, whose life is over.”
McLeod was arraigned Monday morning (Aug. 1) at 36th District Court.
