Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
DETROIT (AP) — The mother of a 16-year-old Detroit boy who was fatally shot while he and his friends played with a gun on Christmas Day says his organs are being donated.
Funeral arrangements were incomplete Sunday for Bernard Walker, a 10th-grader at Allen Academy. Walker was taken off life support Friday at Henry Ford Hospital.
Theresa Culbert told The Detroit News (http://bit.ly/1Eytmw1 ) that the family was working to arrange for a funeral while the organ donation process proceeded. James H. Cole Home for Funerals in Detroit will be handling the funeral and said it expected to have details Monday.
Police have arrested a 19-year-old but have not yet identified him.
"The initial charges were felonious assault and felony firearm," Officer Jennifer Moreno said. "However since he passed, it is up to the prosecutor to raise the charges."
The suspect didn't intend to shoot his friend, Moreno said.
"I don't believe he did it on purpose," she said. "It was truly an accident."
Police said Walker was at a friend's house with two friends, ages 19 and 17. They were playing with the gun in the basement of a home in the Virginia Park neighborhood, about three miles north of downtown Detroit, when it discharged. She said that one of the other teens brought the gun.
Walker, who turned 16 in October, was the youngest of Culbert's children. His 3-year-old brother, DeShawn, was killed in 1997 when a teenage driver struck him as he crossed a street.
___
Information from: The Detroit News, http://detnews.com/
Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
