ST. CROIX — A 9-year-old boy was shot in the head and died shortly after on Monday night, police have confirmed. Police have detained a 15-year-old minor in connection with the shooting, and an arraignment has been scheduled for this morning at the Superior Court.
The boy was transported to the Juan F. Luis Hospital, but he did not survive the gunshot wound.
Initially, the VIPD had received calls of a possible self-inflicted wound, but as more information came in, police learned that the boy was shot with a real gun, and he did not shoot himself. Instead, he was said to have been shot by a 15-year-old male Juvenile.
What remains uncertain as of press time was how, exactly, the child was shot. The boy’s mother, Jarelys Ayala, responded to a comment on social media that suggested the boy had shot himself. “It’s my son who got shot and he ain’t shoot his self. Somebody shot my baby boy when he was playing. They shot him in the head… They took my whole heart with them. To whoever spreading these lies let them know to put a stop to it,” Ms. Ayala wrote, according to a screenshot of her comment provided to the Consortium.
The 15-year-old is expected to be arraigned this morning as an adult.
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