Columbus man who testified he shot in self-defense acquitted of murder in teen girl's death
Kyrique Camper testified earlier this week that when a shadowy figure approached the car he was driving at a traffic light in Columbus, he believed he was about to be killed and fired his gun.
A Franklin County Common Pleas Court jury on Thursday found Camper, 20, of the Northeast Side, not guilty of murdering 17-year-old A'niyah Elie on Oct. 17, 2022, at an intersection in the University District.
The jury found Camper not guilty of aggravated murder and murder, but guilty of improperly handling a firearm in a motor vehicle.
Judge Andria Noble sentenced Camper to two years of probation for the improper handling charge.
The shooting occurred at the intersection of North 4th Street and East 11th Avenue, located at the northern boundary of the Weinland Park neighborhood.
Camper and Elie were involved in a fight shortly before the shooting outside a Kroger store at 1350 N. High St., according to Franklin County prosecutors.
Prosecutors said it was a girls' fight between Elie and Keiara Solomon, Camper's girlfriend. They fought after Elie finished her shift at Kroger.
What led to the fight is unclear, but both sides agreed the girls knew each other and ran into each other while Elie was working.
Robert Krapenc, Camper's defense attorney, said Camper came to make sure it was a one-on-one fight and that no one else ganged up on his girlfriend because several people went to Kroger to support each girl.
Elie's grandmother, 57-year-old Michelle Sharp, testified Solomon sprayed her with pepper spray during the second round of the fighting at Kroger.
After the two bouts of fighting and some alleged additional pepper spraying, both sides got into separate vehicles and drove away, according to testimony during the trial.
A short time later, the two vehicles ended up at the same intersection of North 4th and East 11th, less than a mile away from the Kroger. Elie got out of her family's car and approached the vehicle Camper was driving, according to testimony.
Prosecutors alleged during the trial that Elie was carrying pepper spray and headed for the open front passenger window.
Camper testified that he saw a shadowy figure approaching his vehicle through his tinted windows and that he was scared. He said his instinct was to use the handgun he had sitting in his lap to shoot the figure once.
Krapenc said Camper didn't know if the figure approaching the car had a gun. Krapenc also implied during the trial that Elie could have been holding a gun.
After being shot, Elie staggered back to her family's vehicle. They drove her to Nationwide Children's Hospital, where she was later pronounced dead.
Krapenc pointed out that Columbus police did not preserve surveillance video they watched of the shooting.
jlaird@dispatch.com
@LairdWrites
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus man acquitted of murder in self-defense shooting trial
