A shooting at a home in Opa-locka left a 14-year-old girl dead and her sibling facing a murder charge Thursday, police said.
The shooting happened around 3 a.m. at The Mirage at Sailboat Cove apartment complex in the 14500 block of Northwest 17th Path.
According to an arrest report, the girl's 19-year-old brother, Keon Martavious Thornhill, said he had been involved in a verbal dispute with his sister before he went to his room and grabbed a gun.
Get South Florida local news, weather forecasts and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC South Florida newsletters.
He said he handed it to his sister and she shot herself in the face, the report said.
The 19-year-old ran to a neighbor's house for help and found an off-duty Opa-locka Police officer who responded to the home.
The officer called 911 and Miami-Dade Police and Fire Rescue responded, and the 14-year-old was pronounced dead at the scene. Her name wasn't released but family members said her name was Brianna.
Thornhill was taken into custody and gave several different versions of how the shooting happened, the report said.
Local
"I shot her, it was a mistake, take me in," Thornhill said, according to the report.
He was later booked into jail on a second-degree murder charge. Attorney information wasn't available.
Thornhill made his first appearance in court Friday, where a judge ordered him held without bond.
Miami-Dade Police Det. Zabaleta said four other siblings were home at the time but none were injured. He also said the parents weren't home at the time and said they didn't know a gun was in the home.
"It's possible the older sibling who's being questioned at this time may have found that firearm and that's why it was inside of the residence," Zabaleta said.
NBC 6 tried to talk to the mother, who did not want to speak on camera. She appeared exhausted as she repeatedly said, “I don’t know, it just happened."
Victim advocacy services were being provided to the family.
"These are children that, clearly this is going to affect them, very deeply," Zabaleta said.
Zabaleta said the shooting was an important reminder to families about gun safety.
"From every tragedy as we always say we can learn something. And that's why we want parents to stress upon their children, to stress upon their teenagers, that guns can be very dangerous," he said. "It's a constitutional right, however we need to be responsible on how we handle firearms."
Stay tuned to NBC 6 on air and online for updates
