An 18-year-old man was charged with second-degree murder Thursday in the fatal shooting of a 14-year-old teenager following a fight a day earlier, police said.
“The life of a 14-year-old child was simply not lost the other day,” Police Chief Kevin Davis said. “It was taken by a gunman who intentionally shot and killed one of our children. And that’s something that has the attention of our entire community — and it should.”
At 3:37 p.m. Wednesday, police said, they received a report of shots fired in the 13000 block of Coppermine Road, where three teenagers had been in a dispute. Deputy Chief Brooke Wright said that after the fight, Cruz-Delcid pulled a firearm and shot three rounds at the two other teens. Only the 14-year-old was struck.
Officials said the youngster, who has not been publicly identified, died at a hospital. Fairfax County Public Schools Superintendent Michelle Reid said at the news conference that the teen was a student in good standing at Westfield High School.
“Any time a student’s life is taken before its time, it is a tremendous loss for us,” Reid said. “The proliferation of gun violence with our youth is a significant challenge for us across the country.”
Officials said Cruz-Delcid fired one shot at another youth at the scene, but that person was not struck.
Authorities gave few details regarding what events occurred before the shooting. The three people involved in the case were known to each other and had verbal disputes in the past, officials said, but authorities were still investigating their relationships. The defendant, who Davis said recently graduated from Mountain View High School, did not attend the same school as any of those in the dispute.
“We are not characterizing this as a gang-related matter,” Davis said. “I think we have to be really careful about that. But there are certainly some neighborhood associations.”
Wright said police began searching for the suspect moments after arriving at the scene Wednesday, working with other law enforcement officials and people connected to Cruz-Delcid in an effort to find him.
The search ended late Thursday night, Wright said, when authorities got a call from an attorney for Cruz-Delcid. By 11 p.m., Cruz-Delcid had arrived at the Fairfax County jail to turn himself in.
