Sunday, July 21, 2013

Downtown Shooting Of Black Teen By Another Juvenile Ruled An Accidental Shooting

It's quite curious that it took WTHR's Richard Essex more than 12 hours to report the basic facts he learned when he was riding with a police officer who was the first to respond to the report of a shooting at 3:00 a.m. this morning in the J.W. Marriott Hotel parking garage in downtown Indianapolis. Essex gave few details about the shooting until a story he just posted online where he says police and the prosecutor's office have already determined the fatal shooting of the 17-year old black male victim, Darnell Franklin, was an accidental shooting by another black juvenile. Essex wants to make clear the victim's shooting had nothing to do with Black Expo's activities; rather, Franklin and some friends decided to drive downtown in the middle of the night to pick up some girls in the J.W. Marriott's parking garage when one of the occupants accidentally discharged a gun he was picking up off the floorboard of the car. The shooter, a juvenile, faces charges of reckless homicide, a Class C felony. The prosecutor's office will have to decide whether to waive the juvenile into adult court. From WTHR:
Officers were called just after 3 a.m. Sunday to the Marriott Hotel parking garage in the 600 block of West Washington on the report of a person shot.
They arrived and found 17-year-old Darnell Franklin suffering from an apparent gunshot wound to his back.  He was transported to Wishard Hospital where he later died from his wounds.
Darnell and five others drove in the same car to the Marriott Hotel to meet some female friends. 
Based on the interviews, they were not at any Indiana Black Expo events, but came down after, not arriving until nearly 3:00am.  While they were still in the car, one of the passengers in the backseat reached down to pick a gun up from the floorboard of the car, with his finger on the trigger, accidentally shooting Darnell in the back.
Darnell Franklin Twitter Photo
The five other occupants in the vehicle with Darnell were family members and friends.  
The Marion County Prosecutor's Office has reviewed the case and the determination was made to arrest a juvenile male.  He has been charged with reckless homicide (as a "C" felony) and carrying a handgun without a license (as an "A" misdemeanor).  The accused has been transported to Juvenile Detention.  It is unknown if he will be waived to adult court.
Essex' updated report makes no mention of the fact that he was present with the first responding police officers or the race of the victim. He goes to great length to disassociate the shooting from Black Expo, ignoring the fact that the White Party took place at the neighboring convention center, which did not end until 2:00 a.m. this morning or that a number of attendees to the Black Expo event were staying at the J.W. Marriott.

The Indianapolis Star reported earlier today that it had spoken to the mother of one of the individuals being detained by police earlier today. She told the Star her son had gone downtown with his brother and friends to have fun and never returned home last night. She told the Star she had no idea her son was being detained by police in connection with the shooting. What kind of parents allow their teens to head out on the streets in the middle of the night? And don't expect to see any people in the streets protesting and demanding justice for the death of Darnell Franklin like they've been protesting the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the self defense shooting death of Trayvon Martin.

Check out this must see video from Bill Whittle at PJTV's "Afterburner."


UPDATE: Possible posts from the Twitter account of the victim, Darnell Franklin, using the handle, Lilbadass22:

UPDATE II: Fox59 News' Russ McQuaid scores an interview with Franklin's grieving mother, Traci Love. She has advice for other parents:
“They were about to ride around, talk to some girls, whatever,” said Franklin’s mother Traci Love. “They were about to meet some girls in a hotel room downtown somewhere.
“His friend was in the back seat of the car and the gun went off mistakenly.”
Love’s eyes welled up with tears as she struggled to make sense of her son’s death.
“I believe that these children need to wake up and stop playing with guns because this is tragic. I mean, my son died and it was an accident and it was his friend.
“Its killing me and I don’t know at this point how I’m even going to get through what just happened to me,” she said. “My son’s gone.
“Guns and violence is not the way and you that something’s going to happen eventually and here I am and its something that I would never imagine that would ever happen to me.
“My son is gone and my son has lost his life because someone accidentally shot him and I’ve got to deal with that. I’ve got to deal with that everyday of my life until I’m dead.
“They need to put the guns down.”

13 comments:

Downtown Indy said...

Darnell Franklin @LilBadAss22

CircleCityScribe said...

Just a few points: The mother knowingly allowed her child to be out in violation of curfew. The car was downtown during the Black Expo weekend, where shootings are known to take place most every year, and the entire police force is called to service.

-The mother said her son went downtown to "have fun." In a car with armed people????

-It is illegal to be out past curfew, and illegal for the gun to be carried by juveniles. It is illegal for a parent to allow their child to violate curfew.

I'd call this predictable and the parent has substantial fault for allowing this to happen/failure to parent.

CircleCityScribe said...

P. S. -Just my own observation, but who really believes they went downtown on Black Expo weekend at 3 a.m. to "pick up girls" in the J. W. Mariott parking lot??? Really? What teenager has the money to get a room at the J. W. Mariott??? Of course, in Indiana, one cannot get a hotel room until age 18.

guy77money said...

Who's gun was it? Was it bought or stolen? Why the heck do 17 year old kids need guns when they are going out to have fun? Is it a registered gun? How did a kid get the gun? Those are the questions people should want to know.

Anonymous said...

WAIT A MINUTE: "The Marion County Prosecutor's Office has reviewed the case and the determination was made to arrest a juvenile male. He has been charged with reckless homicide (as a "C" felony) and carrying a handgun without a license (as an "A" misdemeanor)."

-Since when does the Prosecutor tell POLICE who to arrest? -When did the prosecutor start holding weekend hours? -Something stinks real bad here of Democrat politics and political influence into a violent crime....(I'm thinking a Florida influence...)

Gary R. Welsh said...

I agree, anon. There obviously was a big meeting of the chiefs in the early morning hours trying to figure out how best to sugar coat this incident. The public is being fed a load of crap I'm afraid. I'm not buying the story about heading to the J.W. to meet up with girls at 3:00 in the morning. I think there was something far more nefarious involved. You reach for a gun to take into the hotel with you to party in a room with a bunch of girls?

Gary R. Welsh said...

I had dinner at a downtown restaurant tonight. The waiter tells me police were advising businesses to close by 9:00 p.m. last night for the safety of their employees before the bad guys came spilling out into the streets from the concert at Banker's Life Fieldhouse and the All White Affair After Party at the convention center. The waiter could not believe the number of police, extra lighting and other gear set up for public safety purposes last night.

Anonymous said...

"The public is being fed a load of crap."

-I couldn't agree more! The entire MSM coverage is a wash of the most violent event of the year...with total recall of police resources.

Eclecticvibe said...

My experience was somewhat different. I work at a restaurant that has been ground zero for violence previous years at expo. This year was very quiet. This week overall was a good week for me, and I made more than I've made in a few months. Saturday night was slow, and we didn't have the normal business. However the business we did have was a good crowd. There was a very heavy police presence, and the police came in throughout the evening to use our restrooms and get something to drink. They didn't ask us to shut down early as had happened in years past. The crowds outside were calm, and I noticed zero disturbances. One big difference that I noticed was that there were lots of young white people out enjoying the nightlight as usual on a Saturday night downtown. To me this year had a great vibe.

Flogger said...

I would agree spin city at work here trying to distance this shooting from the Expo.

Lots of questions we will probably never learn the answers to. Why were they really downtown at the hour?? Where did the weapon come from?? Most people don't leave a weapon on the floor of a car.

Downtown Indy said...

Evidently there are not going to be others charged in this incident? Three guns -- who had a permit to carry them?

A couple of non-custodial adults hauling juveniles around at 3am to meet 'female friends' at a fancy hotel? I think it's significant they didn't say 'girlfriends'.

Gary R. Welsh said...

The media is told that there is nothing to see here, move along and they all dutifully comply.

Anonymous said...

Laugh at the predictable Black Expo announcement: "Indiana Black Expo is celebrating a safe and successful 43rd Summer Celebration this year."

Hmmm, let's see: A homicide outside of the "White Party" of a teenager in a car with armed subject....at least two more shootings in the downtown area. Well, "We don't have Shamus to blame this year." (In reference to Shamus Patton who shot 9 people at a prior Black Expo and was caught in a car, fleeing police, armed with a gun, because a liberal prosecutor (D) allowed a soft plea bargain!

Now that liberal prosecutor is apparently only charging this years' Expo shooter with Reckless Homicide, despite being in a car, at the Expo known area of violence, at about 3:00 a.m. in violation of the Indiana Curfew Law, where the subject was armed with a gun!!!! -Oh, what a success (cough, choke, puke!)