A DC mother has turned in her 12-year-old son after his 13-year-old friend was fatally shot by an off-duty cop that the pair is believed to have been trying to carjack.
The mother called the police after seeing a photo of her son, who has not been publicly identified due to his age, being shared by authorities seeking his identity on October 31.
The Daily Mail reports, “His alleged accomplice who was shot and killed is 13-year-old Vernard Toney Jr. Toney was described by his school principal as ‘a smart and talented student.’”
Toney, a 7th grader at Kelly Miller Middle School, was suspected in several other carjackings in the city. He was previously arrested in May in connection to the crimes.
On Saturday, the kids had gone up to a car belonging to an off-duty security officer with the U.S. Marshals Service.
A DC police detective testified on Wednesday that the kids “put their hands on their waistbands, as if to indicate they both had a weapon. The 13-year-old approached from the passenger side, and the 12-year-old from the driver’s side,” according to a report from NBC Washington.
“The officer, who was sitting in the passenger seat, got out of his car and fatally shot the 13-year-old, who was later identified as Vernard Toney Jr. The 12-year-old took off running and was captured on surveillance video, authorities said,” the report continued. “When police searched the boy’s bedroom, they found what they said was the clothing he was seen wearing in the surveillance video. No weapons were recovered at the scene of the attempted carjacking or from a search of the boy’s home.”
The boy has now been charged with armed carjacking. It is his first arrest.
Acting Chief of Police Pamela Smith said that Toney “was known to the Metropolitan Police Department, and it’s just unfortunate that this particular incident happened on Saturday night that caused him to no longer be here.”
The 12-year-old is now being held at DC’s youth services center
