St. Pete boy, 11, accidentally shot to death by brother with gun found in alley, police say

An 11-year-old boy was shot to death Friday by his 14-year-old brother, who told St. Petersburg police he had found a gun in an alley near his home, then brought it home and accidentally fired the weapon while playing with it.

Police said the gun had been reported stolen during a vehicle burglary in the city on Wednesday. Stolen guns, especially from unlocked vehicles, have been a recurring problem in St. Petersburg over the years. Police said about 250 guns were reported stolen in the city last year. This year, the count is already around 60.

Police said it’s unclear how the gun wound up in the alley. Police officials said part of their investigation will include figuring that out and corroborating the 14-year-old boy’s account.

“Kids make poor decisions occasionally,” said Mike Kovacsev, the police department’s assistant chief of investigations. “When you add a firearm to that mix, it’s a deadly decision. And you can’t take it back. You can’t put the bullet back in the gun.”

The boy who was killed is Amir Williams, a sixth grader who was a running back on the St. Pete Little Devils youth football league, his family said.

News of Amir’s death drew dozens of family members and friends to the scene. They hugged and grieved.

His siblings were tightknit, said Zy’Cariyah Williams, his 14-year-old sister.

Zy’Cariyah said she last visited Amir over the weekend. All the siblings gathered regularly at the home to spend time together and play Monopoly.

“It really don’t feel real,” she said while hugging relatives near the scene on Friday afternoon.

Police were called at about 12:15 p.m. to the home in the 1400 block of 43rd Street South, where they found Amir wounded. He died at the scene.

There was no school on Friday, and Amir, his 14-year-old brother and 13-year-old sister were home alone, police said.

Police said the boy’s mother didn’t know that her 14-year-old son had recently found a gun and that it was inside the home. She was not at home at the time of the shooting. She was involved in a car crash on Interstate 275 after hearing about the shooting and hailed a ride share to get home, police said.

Family member Darryl Walls, 61, remembered playing football with Amir and his brother and the brother who shot him.

”I helped brought them boys up,” he said.

Walls, who said he has spent time in prison, called for a youth program that would help get kids involved in their communities “instead of just turning them back to the street.”

The boys’ mother lost two sons at once, he said.

”One of them got shot. One of them possibly is going to be going to jail,” Walls said.

However, police said it was too early to say if charges will be filed.

“It’s an accidental shooting,” Kovacsev said. “The family has some healing they have to do. We’ll deal with that with the state attorney’s office over the next week or so.

“We have every reason to believe he’s being forthright about everything,” he said of the boy’s account of finding the gun in the alley. “But we’ll work back and try to see exactly where that came from.”

The topic of kids and guns has been top of mind among state lawmakers in recent months.

On Christmas Eve, a 23-year-old Pinellas County woman was shot to death by her 14-year-old brother after the boy and his 15-year-old brother got into a fight over gifts. Both brothers were arrested.

The Florida Legislature pushed through a bill, HB 1181, in the wake of that shooting that increases the time juveniles can spend in detention on firearms charges.

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the bill into law on Friday afternoon. It goes into effect on July 1.