LR man to plead guilty in shooting
A 19-year-old Little Rock man on Friday admitted to shooting another teenager during an after-hours confrontation at an elementary school and will plead guilty in juvenile court to charges of first-degree battery and being a minor in possession of a handgun.
Antonio William Hunt was 17 when he shot another 17-year-old on March 13, 2022, at Booker T. Washington Elementary School, 2700 S. Main St. The incident occurred about two weeks before Hunt turned 18, and he was charged as an adult.
Hunt told Pulaski County Circuit Judge Cathi Compton that he shot Dylon Xavior Andrews of Little Rock during a confrontation on the basketball court about 90 minutes before sundown. Hunt testified that he drew the gun and started firing to protect his cousin who was “getting jumped” by others.
Deputy prosecutor Christopher
Turanskey told the judge that Hunt had never been in trouble with the law before, and authorities believe he could be rehabilitated through the programs and services available in the juvenile system. Hunt will be designated an extended juvenile-justice offender, meaning that if he is not deemed to be rehabilitated by age 21, he could be sent to prison.
Hunt was arrested immediately after the shooting and spent two nights in jail before posting $75,000 bond.
According to police reports, officers were called to Andrews’ home at 219 E. 28th St. where they found the wounded teen, who had been shot in the hip, being loaded into an ambulance.
Learning Andrews had been shot at the elementary school and provided a description of the shooter, officers searched the area, finding Hunt, who matched that description, on the corner of 27th and Main streets with a .380 pistol in his backpack.
Hunt’s 14-year-old cousin told police that they had gone to the school so he could fight a 16-year-old boy, with the cousin describing how he and the other boy arranged the fight through Instagram.
The other boy arrived with Andrews, someone he’d never seen before, the cousin told investigators. The cousin said he and the other boy started to fight but that Andrews then joined the altercation, and that he fought both the other boy and Andrews twice. During that second fight, the cousin said, he heard a gunshot then he and Hunt ran but were found by police.
Hunt told investigators he had gone with his cousin to support him in the fight.
He said one of the two other teens claimed to have a gun and said he was about to use it. Hunt told police he shot the one who said he was armed due to him repeatedly saying he was going to use the weapon. The incident was recorded on school security video. There was no evidence that Andrews was ever armed.
The other boy told police that he and Andrews had been playing basketball when a fight broke out between several other people in the area. He said a man with a gun fired three times, striking Andrews once. The other boy said he didn’t think the shooter had deliberately targeted Andrews.