Teen-ager says friend shot youths
Teen-ager says friend shot youths
By SUSAN OPPAT
NEWS STAFF REPORTER
YPSILANTI — An Ypsilanti teen-ager who was warned that perjury could result in a life prison sentence identified a 15-year-old friend as the person who fired a shotgun at a pair of Detroit teens last October, killing one and crippling the other.
Trevor T. Brownlee, charged as an adult, was ordered Tuesday to stand trial on open murder and attempted murder charges, and faces up to life in prison without parole if convicted.
The witness, Derrick Jones, also 15, attributed the shootings to a teen-age turf argument and to the fact that “most” teen-age boys on the South Side carry guns at some time or another.
Robert Gilbert, 16, was killed in the incident and Andre Owens, 17, was reportedly crippled.
Jones told 14A District Judge Kenneth Bronson he was not carrying a gun the night of the slaying, but that he has carried one before, as have “most” boys his age on the South Side of Ypsilanti.
That night, he said, Brownlee was carrying a loaded, sawed-off, pump-action shotgun. Friend Anthony Roberts had a .38-caliber revolver, Jones said.
“It was for protection,” he explained. The three youths and another friend, Tracey Jackson, were on their way to a party at an apartment in the 900 block of Michigan Avenue. Parties there, he said, are often the scene of shootings.
Jones said Jackson told the other three he had been harassed earlier in the evening by some youths not from Ypsilanti. “He asked us to watch his back while he checked them,” Jones said.
The group found three youths they didn't recognize on the porch at the home of girls they knew, Jones said. He said he asked them where they were from, got no response, then asked again before the youths told him they were from Detroit.
“They asked me why. I said I was curious. They said, ‘Don’t be curious,’” Jones recounted.
He said an argument erupted between himself and the Detroit teens, and that his friends drew closer. One of the Detroit youths, he said, put his hand to his pants to indicate he had a gun.
“Trevor told him he wasn’t in Detroit no more, if you get smart, you can get killed. You can’t come up to Ypsi and talk,” Jones said Brownlee told the youths.
He said the Detroit youths went to their car, where one of them told another to get something from the car. Jones said he believed the youth was retrieving a gun.
“Trevor pulled out the gun and shot the grill of the car, and they hurried to get in. He shot the windshield of the car and kept shooting,” Jones said. He estimated Brownlee fired six or seven shots, He never saw any of the Detroit youths with a gun, he said.
But, he said, Detroiters “shouldn’t be up here with guns, they shouldn’t be up here, period."
After the shooting, he said, Brownlee and the other two youths went to the party, then left with someone else. Jones said he went home.
Jones admitted that statements he made earlier to police that the shooting might be drug-related were false.
Public defender Hugo J. Mack called the shooting self-defense. “They made gestures that they were armed with a weapon,” Mack told Bronson.
But, said Bronson, “all Trevor Brownlee needed to do was walk away.”
“An almost cold-blooded nature for this matter may be inferred .. . by the wandering off after the shooting to a party,” he said.
Brownlee, was ordered to appear in circuit court Jan. 23.
Teen-ager says friend shot youths
By SUSAN OPPAT
NEWS STAFF REPORTER
YPSILANTI — An Ypsilanti teen-ager who was warned that perjury could result in a life prison sentence identified a 15-year-old friend as the person who fired a shotgun at a pair of Detroit teens last October, killing one and crippling the other.
Trevor T. Brownlee, charged as an adult, was ordered Tuesday to stand trial on open murder and attempted murder charges, and faces up to life in prison without parole if convicted.
The witness, Derrick Jones, also 15, attributed the shootings to a teen-age turf argument and to the fact that “most” teen-age boys on the South Side carry guns at some time or another.
Robert Gilbert, 16, was killed in the incident and Andre Owens, 17, was reportedly crippled.
Jones told 14A District Judge Kenneth Bronson he was not carrying a gun the night of the slaying, but that he has carried one before, as have “most” boys his age on the South Side of Ypsilanti.
That night, he said, Brownlee was carrying a loaded, sawed-off, pump-action shotgun. Friend Anthony Roberts had a .38-caliber revolver, Jones said.
“It was for protection,” he explained. The three youths and another friend, Tracey Jackson, were on their way to a party at an apartment in the 900 block of Michigan Avenue. Parties there, he said, are often the scene of shootings.
Jones said Jackson told the other three he had been harassed earlier in the evening by some youths not from Ypsilanti. “He asked us to watch his back while he checked them,” Jones said.
The group found three youths they didn't recognize on the porch at the home of girls they knew, Jones said. He said he asked them where they were from, got no response, then asked again before the youths told him they were from Detroit.
“They asked me why. I said I was curious. They said, ‘Don’t be curious,’” Jones recounted.
He said an argument erupted between himself and the Detroit teens, and that his friends drew closer. One of the Detroit youths, he said, put his hand to his pants to indicate he had a gun.
“Trevor told him he wasn’t in Detroit no more, if you get smart, you can get killed. You can’t come up to Ypsi and talk,” Jones said Brownlee told the youths.
He said the Detroit youths went to their car, where one of them told another to get something from the car. Jones said he believed the youth was retrieving a gun.
“Trevor pulled out the gun and shot the grill of the car, and they hurried to get in. He shot the windshield of the car and kept shooting,” Jones said. He estimated Brownlee fired six or seven shots, He never saw any of the Detroit youths with a gun, he said.
But, he said, Detroiters “shouldn’t be up here with guns, they shouldn’t be up here, period."
After the shooting, he said, Brownlee and the other two youths went to the party, then left with someone else. Jones said he went home.
Jones admitted that statements he made earlier to police that the shooting might be drug-related were false.
Public defender Hugo J. Mack called the shooting self-defense. “They made gestures that they were armed with a weapon,” Mack told Bronson.
But, said Bronson, “all Trevor Brownlee needed to do was walk away.”
“An almost cold-blooded nature for this matter may be inferred .. . by the wandering off after the shooting to a party,” he said.
Brownlee, was ordered to appear in circuit court Jan. 23.