Officials in Fayetteville, North Carolina, have reportedly detained and announced charges against an 11-year-old boy for the fatal shooting death of 8-year-old Jenesis Dockery. On Aug. 11, officials from the Department of Juvenile Justice reportedly detained an 11-year-old boy for the young girl’s fatal July 25 shooting, WRAL noted.
Additionally, the Dockery family’s lawyer, Harry Daniels, announced charges against the young suspect at a press conference outside of the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office Friday.
The legal aid revealed that a complaint was sent to the Department of Juvenile Justice accusing the 11-year-old of manslaughter and two counts of larceny. “It has been confirmed that the juvenile, in fact, was the shooter that ultimately took Jenesis’ life,” Daniels said as he stood alongside Fon Dockery, Jenesis’ father, and her mother Kimberly.
The Department will make a decision as to whether they will move forward with filing charges against the young boy. Deputies have not released the name of the suspect due to his age.
What happened to Jenesis Dockery?
According to a Facebook update published by the Cumberland Sheriff’s County Office, on July 25, authorities rushed to the 3300-block of Mercedes Drive in Fayetteville to find the precious 8-year-old suffering from an apparent gunshot wound.
Allegedly, the harrowing incident happened after the babysitter’s son got a hold of a gun and shot Jenesis in the head, the Daily Record noted. The babysitter was a longtime friend of the Dockery family.
On Friday, Daniels said authorities believe that the young boy took two firearms from a relative’s safe. One was allegedly used during the fatal shooting. “We cannot go back in time and bring back Jenesis,” Daniels said. “That’s the ultimate justice we want, but we can’t do that, but what we can do is try to hold those accountable, not just this juvenile, but to hold those accountable that allowed this 11-year-old juvenile to gain access to a weapon… he also knew the combination to the safe.”
According to the civil rights attorney, this wasn’t the first time that the 11-year-old boy had been in possession of a weapon. “There are multiple TikToks, YouTube and Instagrams, whatever the case may be, showing he had been in possession of weapons before. So, where I am from and how I was raised, if you have weapons, and you are showing them off, then somebody ain’t watching you. There’s no supervision here.”
It’s unclear how long the Dockery family will have to wait to seek justice for Jenesis, but at Friday’s press conference, Fon said that it has been “a horrible nightmare” since losing his daughter. “It’s hard to put into words how we’re trying to navigate, three weeks later, for something to be done. We wore orange pins on the day we buried our daughter — for gun violence awareness,” the grieving father said, struggling to hold back tears. “Because as much as we want justice for our daughter, this is something no parent should ever have to do.”
Fon added, “We thank the community, and we ask that you continue to support and continue to reach out until the full hand of the law is exacted with justice for our Jenesis.”
On July 31, Fon posted a heartbreaking post to his Facebook account, bittersweetly celebrating what would have been her ninth birthday.
A GoFundMe campaign has been created to help the Dockery family. As of Aug. 14, the campaign has generated almost $25,000, half of its $50,000 goal.
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