BLACK: 16-year-old WF girl shot in the head while he was 'playing' with guns, UPDATE: Sentenced to 20 with possibility of parole in 3 years

[Arheel's Uncle]

16-year-old girl shot in the head after refusing to pick up marijuana bag, KY cops say

The 16-year-old was said to have a “bright future she was excited about.”

news.yahoo.com

16-year-old girl shot in the head after refusing to pick up marijuana bag, KY cops say​

GoFundMe screengrab
Mike Stunson
Thu, January 5, 2023 at 9:40 AM MST

A 16-year-old girl was fatally shot in a Kentucky home over her refusal to pick up a bag of marijuana dropped on the floor, Kentucky cops say.
Scarlett Tucker was pronounced dead at the scene following the shooting, which took place on Tuesday, Jan. 3, at a home in Burlington, about 20 miles southwest of Cincinnati.
The Burlington Police Department said three other teenagers witnessed the shooting. Their statements led to the arrest of 18-year-old Demarkus Hedges.
“According to witness statements, a bag of marijuana fell on the bedroom floor and Hedges demanded that Tucker pick it up,” police said. “Tucker rebuffed him. Hedges then pointed his handgun at Tucker’s head and fired one shot.”
It’s believed Scarlett and Hedges were friends, Boone County Sheriff’s Maj. Phillip Ridgell told WXIX.
Hedges, from Cincinnati, fled the home and later turned himself in to the U.S. Marshals Service in Covington, Kentucky, police said. He was charged with murder, tampering with physical evidence and unlawful transaction with a minor.
Family members told WXIX that Scarlett had a “bright future she was excited about.”
Her aunt, Rebekah Williams, told WCPO “she really embodied the whole ‘Scarlett’ persona.”
“I think we’re all kind of in a state of shock at this point,” Williams said. “I think we hurt for everybody involved. I mean, he was 18, still a young kid in our eyes.”
Hedges is being held in the Boone County jail on a $1 million bond, police said.
Two teens killed when group shows up with guns after online fight, Georgia police say
18-year-old and 4 younger teens shot in ‘targeted attack’ at Illinois home, cops say
15-year-old shot as he waited for school bus, SC cops say. Another teen arrested

 

[Arheel's Uncle]

Demarkus Hedges

Man surrenders to face NKY murder charge in shooting death of 16-year-old girl​

25

Jeanne Houck, Cincinnati Enquirer
Tue, January 3, 2023 at 1:38 PM MST·1 min read


The 18-year-old Cincinnati man wanted for murder in the fatal shooting of a 16-year-old girl in Burlington, Kentucky, early this morning has turned himself in.
The Boone County Sheriff's Office says Demarkus Hedges surrendered to the U.S. Marshals Service in Covington about 2:30 p.m.
Hedges will be taken to the Boone County Detention Center and held on a $1 million bond, according to a news release from the sheriff's office.

Demarkus Hedges
The office said in an earlier release that witnesses said Hedges shot Scarlett Tucker in the head after she refused to pick up a bag of marijuana that had fallen to the floor in the bedroom of a home in the 3000 block of Silver Brook Drive.
Hedges then fled the home in a 2010 maroon Nissan Maxima, witnesses told investigators who found Tucker dead when they arrived at the scene about 2:15 a.m.
The witnesses cooperating with the investigation, which is continuing, were in the home at the time of the shooting. They include an 18-year-old female who lives there, a 17-year-old female and an 18-year-old male.
All five people had spent much of Monday and Tuesday morning together in Cincinnati and Covington. They returned to the home in Burlington about 1:30 a.m.
In addition to murder, Hedges is charged with tampering with evidence and two counts of unlawful transaction with a minor.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: NKY police: Man accused of fatally shooting teen girl turns himself in

 

[Arheel's Uncle]

Suspect in murder of 16-year-old Boone County girl claims shooting was accident

A man accused in the shooting death of a 16-year-old girl is saying her death was an accident, not murder.

www.wlwt.com

Suspect in murder of 16-year-old Boone County girl claims shooting was accident​

Updated: 5:45 PM EST Jan 12, 2023




A man accused in the shooting death of a 16-year-old girl is saying her death was an accident, not murder.
Demarkus Hedges, 18, appeared in a Boone County Court by video Thursday.

Hedges is charged with shooting Scarlet Tucker at close range in a Burlington home where several teens were gathered.
In court, it was revealed that a scenario deputies gave as the reason for the shooting, turned out to be unrelated.
Investigators initially said a bag of marijuana had fallen to the floor, and Hedges told Tucker to pick it up, but when she wouldn’t, he shot her in the forehead.
“That’s not true, is it?” Hedges attorney Clyde Bennet asked the investigator on the stand.
“No sir, that happened earlier in the evening,” said Boone County detective Justine Bates.

At times, the hearing was contentious between Bennett and Bates.
What came out of the exchange was that Hedges brought marijuana, alcohol and a gun to the gathering of teens. Multiple teens had been playing with the gun and pointing it at each other.
Bennett entered a picture into evidence that showed one of the teens holding the gun to another teen’s head.
Bates said Hedges aimed the gun point-blank at Tucker’s head and her friend’s head prior to the shooting, “and pulling the trigger and laughing.”
Bates said Hedges had been taking the magazine out of the gun and unloading it, then loading it and putting it back in the gun.
Bennett claims the teens thought the gun was unable to fire if the magazine was out of the gun, but Hedges didn’t realize there was a round in the chamber.
“Isn’t it true that you would characterize this as an accident? Isn’t that a true statement under oath?” Bennett asked Bates.
“I would characterize it as a gross mishandling of a firearm,” Bates responded.
Hedges was charged with aggravated robbery in Hamilton County in December. Police said he and others held a man at gunpoint as they robbed him.

 

[Arheel's Uncle]

'A tragic, tragic situation': Man gets prison for mishandling gun, fatally shooting 16-year-old girl

Demarkus Hedges admitted shooting Tucker, albeit unintentionally, while mishandling a gun and fleeing with the firearm to keep it from the police.

news.yahoo.com

'A tragic, tragic situation': Man gets prison for mishandling gun, fatally shooting 16-year-old girl​

Quinlan Bentley, Cincinnati Enquirer
February 23, 2024·3 min read

Demarkus Hedges, 19, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for shooting and killing 16-year-old Scarlett Tucker while mishandling a gun at a home in Burlington.
More than a year after 16-year-old Scarlett Tucker was shot and killed while with a group of teens at a home in Burlington, the man responsible was given a decades-long sentence.
The 20-year prison term was handed down on Friday to 19-year-old Demarkus Hedges in Boone County Circuit Court.
It matches a recommendation from prosecutors reached as part of Hedges’ guilty plea last month to manslaughter, tampering with evidence and wanton endangerment.
He admitted to fatally shooting Tucker, albeit unintentionally, while mishandling a gun and fleeing the crime scene with the firearm to keep it from the police.
“This is a tragic, tragic situation,” Judge Richard Brueggemann said of the teen’s death.
Tucker’s family and loved ones filled one side of the courtroom Friday. Lining the aisleway were cardboard posters covered with pictures of Tucker and decorated with flowers and heart-shaped balloons.
“I wish every day that I could go back to that night and take everything back,” Hedges said in court apologizing to the teen’s family. “I’m not a bad person, just a young man who made a terribly irresponsible mistake.”
In a press release issued shortly after the January 2023 shooting, the Boone County Sheriff’s Office said Hedges shot Tucker after she refused to pick up a bag of marijuana that fell on the bedroom floor.
However, a detective later testified that the shooting and the dropped bag of marijuana were unconnected, though a witness did tell investigators that Hedges pointed the gun at Tucker when she refused to pick it up, but that’s not when he shot her.
Deputies arrived at the Silver Brook Drive home early on Jan. 3, 2023, to find Tucker already dead, the sheriff’s office said.
According to investigators, Tucker, Hedges and three other teens spent much of the previous night and the early morning together in Cincinnati and Covington. They returned to the home in Burlington around 1:30 a.m.
The teens told investigators that Hedges brought a gun with him into the home. He was mishandling the weapon, taking bullets out of it and loading and unloading the magazine, the detective testified.
Hedges at some point placed the gun against Tucker’s head and pulled the trigger, killing her, prosecutors said in court filings. He previously said he was “playing” with the firearm when it went off.
Hedges surrendered to the U.S. Marshals Service in Covington roughly 12 hours later.
When Boone County investigators searched Hedges’ phone, they found pictures and videos of him owning and displaying firearms, prosecutors said in court filings.
Those images, they added, “show an individual who treats guns as an accessory to a lifestyle devoid of the care or respect for guns a reasonable person would observe.”
Hedges of Symmes Township was also charged in Hamilton County in an alleged robbery that happened in South Cumminsville a little over two weeks before Tucker’s killing. He was part of a group that stole keys, an iPhone and a backpack from a man at gunpoint, according to an affidavit. That case has yet to be resolved, court records show.
“I hope that he does everything he can in prison to continue to better himself,” Clyde Bennett II, one of Hedges’ attorneys, said in a statement.
Bennett said the manslaughter charge Hedges pleaded guilty to reflects the fact the shooting was an accident.
He said Hedges will be eligible for parole in roughly three years.
“They say everyone makes mistakes,” Hedges said, “but my mistake is one I can never take back.”
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Man sentenced for 'playing' with gun, killing NKY teen Scarlett Tucker