A teenage New Jersey boy shot and killed his girlfriend at her home over the weekend, prosecutors said Monday.
The 17-year-old boy from Plainfield was arrested early Saturday morning and charged with acts of juvenile delinquency, the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s office said. He has not been publicly identified due to his age.
But the 17-year-old girl he shot dead was identified Monday by friends and family as Justice Deas, WABC reported. Deas and the 17-year-old shooter had been dating, prosecutors told the station.
If the boy had been an adult, he would have been charged with aggravated manslaughter and two weapons crimes, prosecutors said. Cops responded around 1 a.m. Monday to a shooting at Deas’ home in Edison, about 15 miles south of Newark Airport.
Deas was suffering from a gunshot wound and pronounced dead at the scene, authorities said. The 17-year-old suspect was arrested at the residence, and prosecutors said afterward it was not a random act of violence.
“I used to get picked on in school and Justice, whenever I needed her, she was there for me,” Deas’ friend Leila Martinez told WABC. “When I had no one, I always had her.”
The shooting was one of two killings in Middlesex County overnight Friday into Saturday morning, both of which involved teenagers. About two hours before Deas’ boyfriend shot and killed her, a 16-year-old boy fatally shot a 17-year-old boy on a street in Sayreville, police said.
