Police are investigating after a 13-year-old was shot and killed in Florida City late Sunday night. The shooting happened around 9 p.m. at a home in the 1300 block of Northwest 4th Avenue.
Friends and witnesses said the teen and some friends were playing with a gun when it went off, hitting the boy in the chest. He later died of his injuries. He was identified as Darin Booker, a student at Redland Middle School.
"We went down there and the boy was down there, laid down on her driveway and I know now he was shot, I didn't know then," neighbor Lee Flenor said.
Darin’s grandmother, Helen Booker, said she felt like her son was murdered.
“Two times he shot the gun, nothing happened, second time he shot, nothing happened, third time my grandson was shot in the chest and he died there,” Booker said. “So no was arrested? So do you call that an accident?”
Police haven’t said what the exact scenario was that led up to the shooting. One witness told NBC 6 that the teens were playing with the gun and after pointing and pulling the trigger twice, the third time a bullet hit Darin.
"It's just sad, it's a sad tragedy that this had to happen in our community," Viola Knight said. "We as parents need to get together and rally and try to save our youth. It's sad to see a 13-year-old child laying in the street."
“It just don’t seem right,” said Darin’s sister, Keke Anderson. “I think they had some kind of beef with my brother that we didn’t know about and that my brother didn’t know about either, cause if he would’ve knew; he wouldn’t have been around them.”
