Toledo officers responded to a call after four teenage boys dropped a sandbag from an interstate overpass, smashing into a car windshield and killing 22-year-old Marquise Byrd. According to The Blade, police said they filed murder charges and vehicular vandalism against the teens, all under 16, Tuesday (Dec. 26). The victim’s cousin thinks they should be tried as adults.
Byrd was traveling down I-75 with a friend in Toledo, Ohio, when a sandbag crashed through the windshield and hit him in the passenger seat. The local news outlet reports the autopsy found Byrd suffered from blunt-force trauma to the head and neck. He was transported to a Toledo medical center where he was pronounced dead.
Byrd’s cousin, Shaveontae King, said she has no sympathy for the young teenagers.
“My auntie has to bury her son. He’s gone. He’s never coming back,” King told The Blade. “She’s holding up the best she can.”
The outlet reports Ohio law allows children at least 14 years old to stand trial as adults, but those younger than 16 are discretionary transfers. Judges have to take into account whether the juveniles can rehabilitate by 21 years old, if they used firearms and if they are mature enough for the adult system.
Deputy chief of the county prosecutor’s juvenile division Lori Olender told the local news outlet that she isn’t seeking to transfer the teenagers’ cases to adult jurisdiction.
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