Three men have been arrested in the drive-by shooting that killed an Alabama teenager who was playing games in his bedroom late last week.
A barrage of gunfire rang out about 6:20 p.m. Friday at a home on Washington Square in Tuscaloosa, where 13-year-old Kei’lan Allen was mortally wounded as he sat in bed playing on his iPad, according to WVTM 13.
The fatal shots entered the home through the boy’s window, the station reported.
He was not the intended target, police said, adding that the shooters were actually targeting an older family member who was not named.
At least 13 shots were fired, one of which struck Kei’lan in the head, reports said. The boy’s mother called out to him, but he didn’t answer, and then she found him slumped over in his room.
The eighth-grader at Westlawn Middle School was later pronounced dead at the scene. He was a straight-A student and an open dictionary sat next to the spot where he died, according to AL.com.
“There were so many shell casings in the road, officers had to pull business cards from their wallets to fold and use as temporary evidence markers,” Tuscaloosa police said in a statement on social media. “The parents and family of the 13-year-old boy had to stand across the street and watch paramedics drive the ambulance away after realizing there was nothing they could do.”
The suspects in the killing have been identified as 21-year-old Julian Lamont Gordon Jr., 19-year-old Jaden Zaire Jenkins and 18-year-old James DeAnthony Reed, WVTM reported.
Each has been charged with capital murder and is being held in the Tuscaloosa County Jail without bond, the station reported, citing a statement by Tuscaloosa police Capt. Jack Kennedy.
Reed was the first to be arrested and was booked into jail on Sunday, WVTM reported. Gordon was the second suspect taken into custody, and Jenkins was arrested Monday.
Gordon told a WVTM reporter “I’m innocent” when asked if he regretted that an innocent child had been killed.
Relatives said Kei’lan was a good kid and the last person they ever expected would be killed by gun violence.
“He was at the safest place he could be — at home,’’ said Kei’lan’s first cousin Corey Prewitt, according to AL.com. “He wasn’t a street kid. He’s not cut from that cloth.”
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