Teen To Be Tried As Adult In Parking Lot Shooting

A 16-year-old boy will be tried as an adult after a shooting at a North Side shopping center Saturday in which a teenage girl’s eye was severely damaged.

Nathaniel Lee Witherspoon, 16, 1610 E. Walton, is accused of firing the shotgun. He will be tried as an adult on charges of first- and second-degree assault.

Witherspoon’s two friends, Sylvester Davis Jr., 20, and a 15-year-old boy also are charged with assault. The 15-year-old also was booked on possession of a controlled substance.

Witherspoon is accused of firing a sawed-off shotgun about 1:30 a.m. into a car parked outside the Taco Bell restaurant at the Northpointe Shopping Center, a popular hangout for teens.

A 16-year-old girl and 20-year-old man sitting in the car were hurt. The man suffered minor cuts from flying glass.

The girl was hit by nine pellets from the single blast, six of them striking her in the face.

Witnesses told police that one of Witherspoon’s companions goaded him into pulling the trigger, yelling “Shoot someone!”

, DataTimes