MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – Authorities have identified the teenager who was arrested for a shooting that occurred in the parking lot of Northwestern Senior High School last week.
Police say 15-year-old Kenahri Smith shot another 15-year-old, Devin Reeves, five times Thursday night, with one of the bullets striking him in the head.
According to his arrest report, Smith and Reeves got into a verbal argument after a basketball game between Miami Northwestern and Miami Central High School and agreed to a mutual fight.
Police said a witness began filming the fight and the video shows a black handgun falling out of the front pocket of Smith’s hoodie.
According to the report, witnesses then tried to separate the two teens.
Police said Smith is seen “retreating from the fight with a clear path back to the school,” but then turns around and begins firing at the victim.
Reeves was transported to Jackson Memorial Hospital in critical condition.
According to the report, Smith went to the Miami-Dade Schools Police Department with his mother and grandfather on Friday and surrendered to authorities.
Police said he admitted to shooting Reeves and then discarding the gun somewhere as he fled the scene.
The gun was later found along the exterior fence of the school, authorities said.
Smith was arrested on charges of attempted murder, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, discharging a firearm on school property, possession of a firearm by a minor, unlawful discharging of a firearm in public and interference with an educational institution.
The shooting hits close to home for board member Steve Gallon III, who was the principal at Miami Northwestern for seven years.
“Any place around this country that we see instances of school violence, it’s always tragic, it’s always unfortunate, and it is something that we have to work towards,” he said.
Activists and parents gathered outside the school on Tuesday, furious about the shooting and by what they say is also a lack of responsibility being taken from local leaders.
“The biggest culprit is the gun. It only gets power when people allow guns and children get access,” activist Renita Holmes said. “I concur that you have to do your duty to punish children and hold them accountable but one of the main objectives for us as parents is to ask the question to our leaders: what do you do as a child or a juvenile or a young one that’s walking the streets and the other guy across the street or behind you on the school bus has a gun? Am I responsible for not protecting myself?”
Holmes stressed that police officers use guns to protect themselves, but questioned how children, specifically in this area, are being protected by local leaders.
“Before we blame, shame or gain fame, saying ‘prosecute, prosecute, prosecute,’ I have a problem with that,” she said. “This is a social economic situation that’s going on here. That’s why it’s so Black. When I look at the response to shootings of officers, I’m amazed. They got guns. But when I look at the response of a child or a boy or even girls now – we’ll hit that next – then I’m concerned that there’s nobody coming.”
Officers have not said how Smith obtained the gun in the first place.
“Our message is consistent -- violence on school campuses should not be tolerated,” Gallon said.
Smith’s mother spoke to Local 10 News Tuesday and pointed to the part of the video before the shooting, where a group of boys and girls appear to gang up on her son.
She said in a statement that her son is “a good kid who’s life was in jeopardy and he defended himself…” and that “those kids have been harassing and bullying my son for months.”
The school district has not clarified which school each student attends.