'Pulling the trigger laughing': Detective says gun mishandled when 16-year-old was shot
A Boone County detective, in court testimony on Thursday, characterized the fatal shooting of a 16-year-old girl in Burlington, Kentucky earlier this month as a "gross mishandling of a firearm."
The Boone County Sheriff's Office had previously said witnesses told investigators that Demarkus Hedges, 18, of Symmes Township, 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.
During a preliminary hearing, Detective Justine Bates testified that the shooting and the dropped bag of marijuana were unconnected, adding there was no altercation or argument preceding the shooting.
Deputies arrived at the home just after 2 a.m. on Jan. 3 to find Tucker dead in an upstairs bedroom with an apparent gunshot wound to the head, Bates testified.
The witnesses cooperating with the investigation 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, including Tucker and Hedges, had spent much of the previous night and the early morning hours of Jan. 3 together in Cincinnati and Covington. They returned to the home in Burlington about 1:30 a.m., according to the sheriff's office.
Others were living in the home, including an infant child, when the incident occurred but were sleeping in separate rooms and not involved or a witness to the shooting, the sheriff's office said.
The detective testified that the witnesses told investigators that Hedges had brought a handgun into the residence along with marijuana and alcohol. Bates said Hedges was mishandling the weapon, taking bullets out of it and loading and unloading the magazine.
Hedges pointed the gun at the heads of Tucker and the 18-year-old woman, whose room the shooting took place in, Bates testified, adding Hedges "had been pulling the trigger laughing."
However, Hedges was not the only person at the residence handling the weapon, Bates said, adding that Tucker and the 18-year-old woman had also held the gun, according to witness statements to investigators.
Bates testified Tucker's gunshot wound was "so large and so terrible" that the medical examiner who performed the autopsy concluded the gun was held against her forehead when the shooting occurred.
Per witness statements, after Tucker was shot, Hedges was "holding the gun and you could see the look on his face was just 'I messed up,'" Bates testified.
Hedges, according to at least one witness, fled the home with the firearm, thought to be a Glock 43, Bates testified, adding the firearm has not been recovered by investigators.
"This is an accident case," said Clyde Bennett, Hedges' attorney. "It was not an extreme indifference to human life."
Just over 12 hours after the shooting, Hedges turned himself in to the United States Marshals Service in Covington, according to the sheriff's office. He's currently being held at the Boone County Detention Center, jail records show.
Hedges is facing charges of murder, tampering with evidence and unlawful transaction with a minor.
Hedges wanted for robbery in Hamilton County
Hedges is also wanted on an aggravated robbery warrant out of Hamilton County, court records show.
In that incident, according to an affidavit, Hedges was part of a group that stole keys, an iPhone and a backpack from a man at gunpoint at the 3800 block of Cass Avenue in South Cumminsville on Dec. 18.
Court documents say the man was "knocked to the floor and threatened until he was able to flee the location."
Hedges is awaiting extradition back to Ohio in that case, court records show.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Detective says gun mishandled when 16-year-old girl was fatally shot
