PLANTATION, Fla. – A 16-year-old boy was showing off a pistol he had stolen two days earlier when he pointed the gun at someone’s head and pulled the trigger, telling Plantation police he did not believe it was loaded, an arrest report states. It was.
The victim, whose name and age were redacted from the report, suffered a gunshot wound to the temple and died, according to an arrest report. Now, the SunFire High School student accused of firing the round is facing an adult manslaughter charge.
Recommended Videos
Teves Banton was booked into the Paul Rein Detention Facility in Pompano Beach on Tuesday in connection with the August 2023 shooting.
According to an arrest report from the Plantation Police Department, on Aug. 11, the Lauderhill teen and two others stole the Glock 9 mm handgun from an SUV parked in a driveway in the 6900 block of Plantation Road just after 3 a.m.
Two days later, just after 12:30 a.m., Banton and three others went into an apartment building laundry room at 4400 NW 10th Place, police said.
Banton would tell police that he was showing the gun and pointing it at different people in the laundry room.
“He said while pointing the gun at (redacted), he pulled the trigger of the Glock, not believing there was a bullet in the ‘head’ (ready to fire),” a PPD detective wrote in the report. “There was, however, a round in the chamber and Banton admitted to shooting (redacted) in the face/head area. Banton said it was an accident.”
Police responded and found the victim lying dead.
The report states that two brothers said they saw an “unknown masked person” stop in front of the laundry room, fire one shot at the victim, and run away.
It states, however, that surveillance video from the complex shows Banton and the two brothers went into the laundry room together.
Detectives said they found the gun in a set of bushes near a dumpster at the complex and later found Instagram messages between Banton and one of the burglary suspects from the evening of Aug. 11 that discussed selling the gun.
Authorities arrested Banton at SunFire High School, a charter school located at 2360 W. Oakland Park Blvd. in Oakland Park, on April 30.
Police wrote in the report that they believed they had probable cause to charge Banton with second-degree murder, but a spokesperson for the Broward State Attorney’s Office told Local 10 News that prosecutors chose to file a manslaughter charge after a review of the “facts, evidence and circumstances” of the case.
Banton was being held without bond as of Wednesday morning.