It’s been nearly three months since a fight involving teens turned into a shooting after a basketball game near Miami Northwestern Senior High School.
During a hearing Wednesday where he hoped to convince a judge to grant him a bond, 15-year-old Kenahri Smith confessed that he was the shooter, but only shot in self-defense.
“If I would have ran I would have gotten shot from behind,” Smith told Judge Laura Stuzin during his Arthur Hearing, while trying to explain that he shot another student because he felt threatened.
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Smith is facing several adult charges including attempted murder. The 14-year-old victim is still at the hospital trying to recover, according to Miami-Dade Public Schools Police Det. Steven Rovira.
“He still has the brain injury. He is going through therapy. He is immobile on one side of his body. Speaking with mom he hasn’t been able to be verbal as of yet,” said Rovira.
Video shot by other students in the area caught when Smith shot the victim multiple times. The fight ignited in a parking lot after a Northwestern versus Central High School game.
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According to an arrest report, both teens had been attending the game as spectators and after it ended, got into a verbal exchange and agreed to a fight.
Witnesses told police the victim and the shooter had prior issues between each other. Some of their arguments were on social media.
Smith told a judge he thought the victim had a gun, so in response, “I grabbed mine,” he added.
Police say the 15-year-old ran from the scene but the gun was found by a custodian.
After examining the weapon, police learned the casings and the firearm matched a gun used in an April 2023 murder investigated by Miami-Dade Police.
