13-year-old charged in fatal shooting of cousin at Seattle apartment

A 13-year-old boy was charged Tuesday with first-degree manslaughter, accused of recklessly causing the death of his 17-year-old cousin when he racked the slide of a .45-caliber handgun, causing the weapon to fire inside an apartment in Seattle's Rainier Valley, according to King County prosecutors.

The boy, who was also charged with second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm, remains in detention at the Judge Patricia H. Clark Children and Family Justice Center in Seattle, where he is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday.

The King County medical examiner's office last week identified Elijah-King Leven as the 17-year-old who was shot in the head late on May 29 and died two days later at Harborview Medical Center. He is referred to in charging papers by his initials, EKL.

A 16-year-old girl called 911 just before 11:30 p.m. on May 29 and reported her friend, the 17-year-old boy, had been playing with a gun and shot himself inside a bedroom of a third-floor unit at the Willow Crossing Apartments in the 6900 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Way South, the charges say.

The girl told dispatchers the 17-year-old was responding verbally but she and other teens who were present couldn't get to him because his body was blocking the closed bedroom door, according to the charges.

Seattle police officers arrived and gently pushed their way into the room, where they found the 17-year-old clutching $21 in his hand. The bedroom was empty of furniture, but officers found a cellphone and glove on the floor next to the boy and in the opposite corner of the room, a .45-caliber handgun and a spent cartridge casing, the charges say.

During the police investigation, detectives learned the residents of the apartment were in the process of moving out but two teenage siblings who had lived there came back the night of the shooting to hang out with friends, charging papers say.

Three teenage girls - two 16-year-olds and a 13-year-old - were in another bedroom changing clothes with the door closed when they heard a gunshot, according to the charges. They found the 17-year-old boy in the other bedroom and called 911.

On May 31, the day the 17-year-old died at Harborview, the mother of the 13-year-old boy called 911 and reported that it was her son who had been playing with the gun's slide when it went off, the charges say. She later told investigators her son first claimed the 17-year-old had shot himself before admitting he had been the one with the gun, according to charging papers.

An autopsy showed the location of the gunshot wound and the bullet's direction of travel through the boy's head was inconsistent with a self-inflicted injury, the charges say.

Security footage from the Willow Crossing apartments showed four teens arriving at the main entrance at 11:03 p.m. and nine minutes later, three of them let the 17-year-old and his 13-year-old cousin into the locked building, charging papers say. A few minutes later, the 13-year-old was seen on camera running out of a stairwell and then out of the building with his hood up and wearing a mask, the charges say.

The 17-year-old's mother later identified her son and nephew from the footage, according to the charges.

The 13-year-old, accompanied by his mother, turned himself in to police on June 3, the charges say.

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