A Georgia man was indicted for murder in shoot dead of a teenage girl who died in 2019, two years after she was shot in the neck in 2017, despite the fact the shooting was described as accidental.
Ny’khia Sampsonaffectionately referred to as “Black Beauty” in her obituary, was only 15 years old when she was fatally wounded by a gunman and her death was barely covered by the press.
She was on life support for two years before dying at the age of 17.
Five years after the deadly shooting, Kedrick Tyrese Reynolds23 years old, is being charged with her death, despite having been incarcerated for the past 5 years for giving police false information about her and violating his probation in another case .
A teenage girl’s shooting was accidental when the gun fired when she handed it over to the gunman
Based on The Macon Telegraph, Sampson, Reynolds, and a two-year-old were in a Fort Lauderdale apartment on November 21, 2017, when the Bibb County sheriff said she was “handling a gun believed to belong to Reynolds. When Reynolds took the gun from Sampson, the gun opened fire, piercing Sampson’s neck.”
It is not clear how Sampson and Reynolds came to know each other, however her obituary describes her death as “accidental.”
Despite the random nature of the shooting, deputies went on to say that Reynolds told investigators the truth about the shooting that “wasn’t found to be true”, the Telegraph reported.
Gunman charged with two counts of murder “with no distinction of bad intentions”
Earlier this week, a grand jury indicted him on two counts of murder, with prosecutors alleging that the shooting resulted in the girl’s death 28 months later, “regardless of malice.”
Reynolds pleaded guilty to two counts of murder in part because he was the first inmate on probation, having been convicted of marijuana possession six months before the shooting.
One of the conditions regarding his release was that he must stay away from guns at all times. Reynolds was found “within reach” of a .380 caliber pistol, which fired Sampson and a 9mm Glock pistol, according to the Telegraph.
Authorities didn’t say why it took Reynolds nearly five years to be charged with Sampson’s murder, but her March 2020 death occurred amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, which has led to her condition legal backlog nationwide.
Victim’s cousin opened a clothing store named in her honor after being shot dead
An online memorial to Ny’Khia . can be found here.
Meanwhile, one of Sampson’s cousins, Rodreeka Murry, ended up opening a clothing store in her honor in Macon called Khia’s Kloset Kollections, according to a WMAZ report from last year.
Murry told the store that the store was unique in the type of clothing they offered, along with the meaning of the store’s name.
She added that most of the clothing sold in the store is something that “you’ll find in Ny’Khia’s closet.”
Murry said that Ny’Khia has always respected her and is her biggest role model.
