ACWORTH, Ga. — Police in Cobb County responded to a shooting death on Aug. 6, finding a 15-year-old dead.
The shooting, outside of Cobblestone Landing Apartments in Acworth, led police to victim Tayshawn Omari Dean’s friend, 22-year-old Lorenz McNeill.
Now, Acworth police tell Channel 2′s Cobb County Bureau Chief Michele Newell the death may have been an accident.
McNeill is currently charged with involuntary manslaughter.
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Police said the death may have been an accident, but McNeill is still in jail, accused of shooting Dean outside of the apartment complex.
Channel 2 Action News spoke to Dean’s neighbors, who said they knew the victim and his friend.
Dean “was a good kid he just needed a little guidance. A lot of them do. A lot of kids need guidance, even the 22-year-old. He needed guidance,” Marlo Naudain, a neighbor, told Newell.
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McNeill faces charges of reckless conduct and involuntary manslaughter, according to a warrant for his arrest.
The records say that he pulled out a semi-automatic handgun and pulled the trigger on the weapon without checking if it was unloaded.
“Based on the evidence the detectives have revealed so far, it looks like it’s possibly an accident,” Eric Mistretta, Acworth Police Department’s public information officer, said.
Naudain told Channel 2 Action News that the shooting death shouldn’t have happened, and that “as an adult, you shouldn’t have a firearm around a child, period.”
Meanwhile, police said there are too many guns on the streets.
“It’s very alarming to be so close to home,” neighbor Tyler Johnson said. “I know that both of the guys were very good friends with each other. They weren’t enemies.”
Johnson told Channel 2 Action News he doesn’t know what else can be done to stop the violence at this point.
“It’s to a point where these kids already have these guns,” Johnson said. “It starts in the household, no fatherhood, no guidance, nobody to show you how to be a man. Then you’re just lost out here.”
In 2022, the violent crime bureau in Cobb County recovered 190 guns used in crimes, many of which were stolen.
The year before, in 2021, the number of firearms collected was a little higher.
Police said the numbers don’t account for guns recovered by officers working during regular patrol.
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