CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- A man was playing with a gun when he fatally shot his 19-year-old girlfriend Friday evening at a Chatham apartment, Cook County prosecutors say.
Lafayette Hodges, 18, was ordered held on a $50,000 bail Monday on a felony count of involuntary manslaughter in the death of 19-year-old Lyniah Bell, prosecutors said Monday during a bond hearing.
The couple, who had been dating for about nine months, were in a bedroom of the Chatham apartment Hodges shared with his mother and multiple siblings, when a friend came over with the handgun, prosecutors said.
The friend dumped the bullets out of the revolver onto the bed, and Hodges picked up what he thought was an empty pistol gun and pointed it at the friend and allegedly pulled the trigger, prosecutors said.
Hodges then pressed the gun to his own head and pulled the trigger again. But when Hodges pointed the gun at Bell, he fired a shot that hit her under the nose, prosecutors said.
Hodges ran from the house, leaving Bell’s body behind on the bed, partially covered with a blanket, prosecutors said. After calling a friend and his mother, Hodges turned himself in to police six hours later. She died at the scene.
A judge ordered Hodges held in lieu of $50,000 bail. However, Hodges will be held in jail without bond because his arrest for shooting Bell violated his bond on an unrelated charges for assaulting a police officer in 2018.
Bell, who was in her freshman year at Michigan State, graduated from North Lawndale College Prep and was a recipient of a Phoenix Pact scholarship, according to Dr. Garland Thomas-McDavid, president of the west side charter school.
“We just can’t say enough good about the positive impact she had on the school community,” Thomas-McDavid wrote. “She will be missed dearly, and our hearts grieve alongside her mother and family.”
In high school, Bell was a member of the National Honor Society and a Peace Warrior, according to Thomas-McDavid. She also participated in the theater club and the HoopsHIGH program, which teaches students sports broadcasting, and CAPS, a student mentorship program.