A dispute over a stolen cellphone led to the death of a 13-year-old boy and the imprisonment of a 16-year-old teen in Detroit, Michigan.
On July 26, Ryan McLeod drove with several of his pals to the home of the victim after he accused him of stealing his iPhone days earlier.
“This all started from a cellphone that was perhaps stolen, and a car full of young people decided they would go to this location,” Detroit Police Chief James White said.
“They saw the victim, 13 years old, out front. Someone in that vehicle – we believe to be the driver – fired a shot, striking the victim, and senselessly, he was murdered on the streets, in the middle of the day, in the summer, over a cellphone.”
White added that the boy was pronounced dead shortly later at a local hospital. McLeod was arrested and charged with premeditated murder, assault, and firearm offenses.
Three people who were riding his vehicle at the time of the fatal shooting were also busted. Two of them were minors.
“I’ve got a 16-year-old whose life is over because he pulled a trigger to settle a dispute over an iPhone. His life is over, and a 13-year-old who won’t get a chance to work in Ceasefire, won’t get a chance to be the police chief, the City Council president, whose life is over,” White said.
