Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - A Buffalo man was arraigned on a sealed indictment from a Grand Jury on Wednesday for his alleged role in the shooting death of a 13-year-old girl this past July in East Buffalo.
21-year-old Avantae Ayala, also known as "Tay", was arraigned before Erie County Court Judge Susan Eagan on the indictment charging him with one count of Murder in the Second Degree (Class "A-I" felony) and one count of Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Second Degree (Class "C" violent felony).
The alleged incident took place on Friday, July 7, 2023 at around 12:30 a.m. ET. It was shortly after the incident where Buffalo Police officers responded to a reported shooting on Mortimer Street near Broadway. The victim, a 13-year-old female, was found deceased at the scene.
According to District Attorney John Flynn, the female victim was hanging out with a group of kids that were hanging around the corner of Broadway and Mortimer in front of the Forge Apartments. Unbeknownst to her, there were a couple of young men that were in that group of 20 or so kids that had a beef with another group of young men that Ayala was part of.
Earlier in the evening, there was some social media arguments going back-and-forth between the two group, which escalated the situation leading up to the incident.
"There were two cars, there were a number of kids in each car, and the cars were traveling in tandem. They had actually done a loop around the block, and then they were coming back around down Mortimer, and the group of 20 kids standing in front of the apartment kind of got the sense that something was going down," said Flynn during Wednesday's press briefing. "They all scattered, including our 13-year-old victim, this beautiful young girl who, again, just started running."
The defendant is accused of intentionally firing an illegal pistol toward a group of teenagers who were gathered outside of an apartment building.
"The defendant was sitting in the front passenger seat of the first car in the tandem, and fired a single shot, which what we believe, at one of the young men who he was having a beef with before. But he didn't hit any of the young men he was having a beef with. He hit this 13-year-old girl, and shot her one single shot to the head. And she died on the scene there," Flynn detailed.
Flynn also noted the two cars driven by the one group of kids in this incident had been reported as stolen.
"That day was a very sad and tragic day. We should not be burying our children. We should not be burying 13-year-old children. We shouldn't be burying anybody under circumstances like this, but it was a very sad night," said Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia on Wednesday. "The next day, myself, Deputy Commissioner [Alphonso] Wright, Chief of Detectives [William] Macy and some others, we went and visited with the family. So to be able to stand here today and, at least, acknowledge to the family that they can, at least, have a little bit of closure, bring a little bit of peace to them hopefully that someone is being brought to justice."
Ayala was already in state prison serving time for a prior crime he was convicted of. However, Judge Eagan agreed to have Ayala remanded to the Erie County Holding Center for the duration of the trial.
A return court date has not been scheduled at this time.
If convicted of the highest charge, Ayala faces a maximum sentence of 25 years-to-life in prison.
Flynn called the efforts of his office and the Buffalo Police Department to come to this point of the investigation and the case "Outstanding Police Work 101".
"When you want to talk about solving a crime and putting the pieces of the puzzle together, and working a case up, this is the textbook example of how you do that," Flynn said.
In the final couple of days of his tenure in office as Erie County District Attorney, Flynn says this was a bit of "poetic justice" to be discussing this case.
"I've been asked a number of times over the course of the past few weeks, are there any cases that are still out there that you didn't get a chance to solve over the course of the past, almost, eight years now? If Joe [Gramaglia] and I put our heads together, we're gonna obviously probably think of a number of them. But this, clearly, is at the top of the list," Flynn said. "All homicides are tragic, all shootings are tragic. Anytime a victim is hurt or dies, they leave behind loved ones that are scarred for the rest of their life. And this was a horrific case that occurred last summer."
Flynn's last day in office as District Attorney is Thursday before taking a job in the offices of Lippes Mathias LLP.
