DETROIT (WWJ) - A 21-year-old Detroit man was charged on multiple counts, including second-degree murder, in connection to the shooting death of an 11-year-old girl who was struck in the back by a stray bullet while in her bed on June 4, officials announced on Thursday.
Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said in a press release that she has charged Detroit native William Dickerson, 21, with:
• Second-degree murder
• Involuntary manslaughter
• Discharge at a building causing death
• Careless discharge causing injury or death
• Four counts of felony firearm.
Police said they were first called to a residence after reports of shots fired on the 20290 block of Goulburn Street in Detroit on Saturday around 10:15 p.m.
A young girl, 11-year-old Saniyah Pugh, was found by officers in her bedroom with an apparent gunshot wound to be back; she was pronounced dead at the scene.
Detroit Police Chief James White said the young child was having a sleepover with five other girls at her grandparent's house at the time of the shooting; the other children and two other adults were unharmed.
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White told reporters via ABC 13 that the girl was "making TikTok videos and laughing one minute and being shot in the back ... the next."
Authorities allege Dickerson and a 17-year-old juvenile were out in the backyard of another residence and had fired a handgun several times when a stray bullet from their weapon struck the home off Goulburn Street and fatally hit the girl while she was in bed.
Both Dickerson and the 17-year-old were taken into custody by Detroit police.
“It doesn’t matter if you are shooting your gun off on New Year’s Eve or shooting at targets in your backyard," said Worthy. “The allegations in this case are yet another tragic reminder of that a bullet has no eyes. Ever.”
Dickerson was arraigned on Friday, June 10.
The juvenile respondent’s charges will not be formalized until Saturday, June 11. Her Preliminary Hearing is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. before Referee Mona Youssef at the Wayne County Juvenile Detention Center.
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan also expressed frustration to reporters on Saturday night as mass shootings gripped cities in Tennessee, Texas and Pennsylvania in recent weeks.
"When you can have an 11-year-old girl in a home with her grandmother and five other children as young as the age of 7, dancing joyously in the house, and have a bullet come through and kill her, it hits you very hard," Duggan said via ABC 13.
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