NEW ORLEANS — The suspect booked with negligent homicide in the fatal shooting of a 15-year-old girl Sunday told detectives that “he was playing with a gun” that belonged to a friend when it accidentally discharged, according to court records.
Kennedi Belton, a freshman at Warren Easton High School, was in the next room after attending a girls’ sleepover when she was shot while lying in a bed, according to an arrest warrant affidavit. Two other victims suffered superficial wounds when “the round went through the shared wall between the two rooms,” the document states.
Andre Skinner, 19, who was also booked with two counts of misdemeanor negligent injuring, told the detectives that he was trying to take apart the gun “to become more familiar” with it, went it went off, the detectives wrote.
Skinner waived his Miranda rights in speaking to the detectives, according to the affidavit. He told the officers that he removed the gun’s magazine but “did not check to see if the gun was loaded” with a round in the chamber.
Detectives later determined that the firearm was a “ghost gun,” meaning that it did not have a serial number.
Bail was set at $60,000 for Skinner, who has no prior adult criminal record, the court documents show.
The sleepover took place on Curran Boulevard in the Little Woods community. Belton and others were still at the residence at 1:40 p.m. Sunday when the tragedy occurred. Belton died at the scene.
A balloon release is planned for Kennedi Belton Thursday at 2 p.m. at Warren Easton High School, 3030 Canal St.
The school released a statement that read, in part:
“Warren Easton Charter High School is truly heartbroken at the loss of one of our beloved students. This is a tragedy that is felt by our entire community, and we extend our deepest condolences to all those impacted. We will make every effort to help our students, staff and faculty cope with this loss. We have reached out to our families and a group of social workers has been dispatched to our building.”
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