The 16-year-old Broward teen killed the victim while showing off the stolen gun, cops say; calculated as an adult

PLANTATION, Fla – A 16-year-old boy was displaying a pistol he had stolen two days earlier when he pointed the gun at another person’s head and pulled the trigger. He told Plantation police he didn’t think it was loaded, an arrest report said. It was.

The victim, whose name and age were redacted from the report, suffered a gunshot wound to the temple and died, according to an arrest report. Now the SunFire High School student accused of firing the cartridge faces involuntary manslaughter of an adult.

Teves Banton was booked into the Paul Rein Detention Center in Pompano Beach on Tuesday in connection with the August 2023 shooting.

According to a Plantation Police Department arrest report, the Lauderhill teen and two other people stole the Glock 9mm handgun from an SUV parked in a driveway in the 6900 block of Plantation Road just after 3 a.m. on August 11

Two days later, shortly after 12:30 p.m., Banton and three others went into the laundry room of a residence at 4400 NW 10th Place, police said.

Banton would tell police that he displayed the gun and pointed it at various people in the laundry room.

“He said while pointing the gun at (redacted), he pulled the trigger on the Glock, not believing there was a bullet in the ‘head’ (ready to fire),” a PPD detective wrote in the report. “However, there was a cartridge in the chamber and Banton admitted to shooting in the face/head area (redacted). Banton said it was an accident.

Police responded and found the victim lying dead.

The report states that two brothers said they saw an “unknown masked individual” stop in front of the laundry room, fire a shot at the victim and run away.

However, it is said that surveillance video from the complex shows Banton and the two brothers walking into the laundry room together.

Investigators said they found the gun in bushes near a dumpster at the complex and later found Instagram messages between Banton and one of the burglary suspects from the evening of Aug. 11 discussing the sale of the gun.

Authorities arrested Banton at SunFire High School, a charter school at 2360 W. Oakland Park Blvd. at Oakland Park on April 30.

Police wrote in the report that they believed they had probable cause to charge Banton with second-degree murder, but a spokesman for the Broward District Attorney’s Office told Local 10 News that prosecutors decided to file a manslaughter charge , after checking the “facts.” “Evidence and Circumstances” of the case.

Banton was being held without bail Wednesday morning.