HARTFORD, Conn.—Hartford police said Wednesday that they have filed criminal charges against two teenagers who were wounded in a drive-by shooting that also killed a 12-year-old girl who was an innocent bystander. The shooter or shooters, meanwhile, remain at large.
Authorities disclosed new information alleging one of the teens, 18-year-old Jeremy Francis, exchanged gunfire with the drive-by suspect or suspects in the April 20 shooting, which killed seventh grader Se'Cret Pierce as she sat in a parked car. A 23-year-old man also was wounded.
Francis was served with an arrest warrant two days after the shooting while being treated at Saint Francis Hospital. Police charged him with unlawful discharge of a firearm, carrying a pistol without a permit, risk of injury to a minor and reckless endangerment.
The other wounded teen, 16, was supposed to be under house arrest at the time of the shooting because he was on probation for firearm charges, police said. He was taken into custody and detained, authorities said. His name was not released because of his age.
The state public defender’s office is representing Francis, but said it could not comment Wednesday because his case has not yet been assigned to a staff member.
Police said the shooting appeared to target the three males who were wounded, as they stood on a sidewalk shortly after 8:30 p.m. Se'Cret was shot in the head and abdomen, and died at the hospital the next morning. The three other victims’ injuries were not life-threatening, police said.
Se'Cret’s death came more than a decade after her father, Shane Oliver, was shot to death on another Hartford street. Oliver was 20.
