A 12-year-old boy is being held in juvenile custody in connection with the killing of a 13-year-old in the District last month. However, the circumstances that led up to that shooting are quite different from what police initially said happened.
Ahmad Mims was found shot to death on a sidewalk on Rosedale Street NE in July. He was a rising eighth grader at KIPP Northeast Charter School.
The 12-year-old suspect was originally facing voluntary manslaughter charges, but a judge reduced the charges to involuntary manslaughter while armed after hearing evidence in court Thursday.
When News4 first reported this story in July, we quoted from a search warrant affidavit that said Mims had been targeted for allegedly hitting the suspect’s sister. However, none of that came out in court Thursday.
Instead, Detective Darren Malloy testified that the 12-year-old voluntarily went to Homicide in the days after the killing and gave three versions of what happened that night.
Malloy testified that there were four people inside the house on Rosedale Street NE back on July 11. As the investigation got underway, police talked to as many as 10 witnesses, including a man who told police he saw someone dragging Mims out of the house and leaving his body on the sidewalk.
Ahmad Mims was found shot to death on a sidewalk on Rosedale Street NE in July. He was a rising eighth grader at KIPP Northeast Charter School.
Malloy said three days after the shooting, the 12-year-old and his family went to Homicide and agreed to talk with police about what happened that night.
Initially, the boy said Mims had a weapon that night while sitting on the couch, the detective told the court. The 12-year-old said he told Mims to put it away, and when he went upstairs to use the bathroom, he heard a gunshot.
In version two, the 12-year-old said Mims shot himself.
But in version three, the detective testified, the 12-year-old told police he had the gun and was passing it around to the others in the living room. When it came back to him, he raised it in the air and when it came back down, the gun went off, he said.
Malloy said a witness who was in the house corroborated that version.
In video recorded in the hours before Mims’ death, which was shared with News4, two males are seen waiting in the hallway of Mims’ apartment before the 13-year-old comes out and looks right into the camera.
During the testimony, the 12-year-old broke down crying and wiped tears from his eyes.
The detective also testified that a man walking his dog that night saw someone pulling Mims’ body out of the house.
The 12-year-old told police that person was him and that he was trying to get help for Mims. Instead, he said, he got scared and fled the scene.
The boy is due back in court Aug. 26.
