ORLANDO, Fla. – A 15-year-old boy, the youngest of four teenagers accused in the drive-by shooting deaths of a 6-year-old girl and a 19-year-old man in Orlando late last month, was left behind at a hospital that night, dragging the man’s body to the emergency room as the others drove off, according to an affidavit.
Nico Brown, 15, was the first to be arrested in the Orlando Police Department’s ongoing investigation of the Aug. 29 shooting on Poppy Avenue in the Carver Shores neighborhood. Brown, who’s being charged as an adult, faces two counts of second-degree murder and other charges.
An affidavit for a custody order — filed in the Ninth Circuit on Saturday, the day of his arrest, and released on Thursday — sheds new light on Brown’s alleged involvement in the shooting and the immediate aftermath.
The shooting was reported by multiple 911 callers just after 8 p.m. in the 1100 block of Poppy Avenue, drawing in officers who arrived to find “an abundance of shell casings” and two victims, 6-year-old Ajahliyah Hashim and her mother. Hashim, who was shot in the head, was taken to Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children, while her mother was taken to Orlando Health for treatment of gunshot wounds to both legs, the affidavit states.
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Hashim’s injuries were critical, police said, with the department confirming Sept. 1 that she had died as her mother was still undergoing treatment. Both of them were inside of their home when the shooting occurred, according to Orlando police Chief Eric Smith, who said Thursday the case involved the 438 gang targeting the wrong house.
“This is basically the 438 gang arguing with the Carver Shores boys and they’re basically doing it on social media on a live platform arguing back and forth. Those guys get mad, jump in the car, go down there and do a drive-by shooting and go to the wrong house,” Smith said at a news conference.
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According to the affidavit, the 19-year-old who lost his life — identified by Orlando police as Isaiyah Wright — was known to the accused.
Detectives pointed to two videos of the shooting that they say were recorded by people in the neighborhood. In the first video, a silver Toyota Camry can reportedly be seen abruptly stopping on Poppy Avenue as several people jump out and begin firing guns toward the east side of the roadway. In the other video, Brown can allegedly be seen dragging Wright to the passenger’s side of the car where he and an unidentified male pick him up and put him inside, documents show.
Additionally, detectives reported hearing from people who knew Wright that he likely had plans with “Ricky, Rick, and Nico” that night. The oldest suspect so far arrested in the shooting was identified earlier this week as Ricky Raymond Bowery Jr., 18.
At Health Central, the hospital where Wright was ultimately pronounced dead, surveillance video from around 8:30 p.m. Aug. 29 shows the Camry’s arrival and departure, police said. In the midst, several males could be seen dragging Wright out of the car and laying him on the ground near a sidewalk, yet Brown allegedly stays behind. As the Camry is driven off, Brown reportedly runs into the emergency room for help before returning to drag Wright toward the building.
The other two teens who were arrested in connection to the shooting have been identified as Kny Adams and Brandon James Pickett, both 17. Orange-Osceola State Attorney Andrew Bain will make the determination whether to charge them as adults.
While Bain’s office shared a statement Thursday promising “full consequences” for the four accused, going as far to state it should be an automatic process in cases “when the facts require resolutions outside the capacity of the Department of Juvenile Justice,” decisions on each suspect have not been collectively rendered at the time of this report.
For Brown, however, the 15-year-old will face charges as an adult of shooting at, within or into a building, attempted felony murder with a firearm and two counts of second-degree murder with a firearm, according to court documents released Friday.
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