TPD: Tallahassee teen faces charges after Godby student killed 'inadvertently' in shooting
A teenage boy faces charges after "inadvertently" shooting and killing an 18-year-old sitting on the front porch of a house in west Tallahassee, according to the Tallahassee Police Department.
Immanuel Grant-Hayes, 17, was arrested Tuesday on a charge of manslaughter. He is being held in the Juvenile Assessment Center.
Family members told the Tallahassee Democrat the victim was 18-year-old Shawn Cooper, Jr., who was a sophomore at Godby High School.
Initial report: Police investigate fatal shooting in northwest Tallahassee near Mission Road
According to TPD, Grant-Hayes was sitting on the porch of a house in the 2600 block of Peachtree Drive with several others as he "manipulated" a gun that accidentally went off and hit Cooper, who was sitting nearby.
"Upon firing the fatal gunshot, Grant-Hayes immediately fled the scene, and the victim was located deceased by responding officers moments later," TPD said in an online incident alert.
Officers arrived at the home in a residential area near Mission Road, just after 5:30 p.m. Monday where they found the teen dead following the shooting, according to the original TPD social media incident alert.
The subsequent investigation helped detectives identify the suspect, and "after consultation with the State Attorney's Office, TPD detectives obtained a warrant to charge Grant-Hayes with manslaughter," according to the incident alert.
State Attorney Jack Campbell told the Democrat Grant-Hayes is still being treated as a juvenile at this point because it's too early to determine whether he should be directly charged as an adult.
And as long as he is a juvenile in the eyes of the court, Campbell said it's illegal for him to discuss the case any further, including the deciding factors behind charging the teen with manslaughter instead of first- or second-degree murder.
"But no matter what the circumstances, we have another tragedy," he said. "We've lost another young person to gun violence."
Last year, Tallahassee saw a string of five accidental shootings — three of them fatal — in a single month, with one incident killing a one-year-old.
Breaking & trending news reporter Elena Barrera can be reached at ebarrera@tallahassee.com. Follow her on X: @elenabarreraaa.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: TPD: Tallahassee teen 'inadvertently' shot, killed Godby student
