Dallas teen shot dead after group at party was playing with gun

DALLAS - Witnesses tell police a teen girl jokingly told a man to shoot her at a party in Dallas over the weekend. They say he actually did — killing her.

William Hester, 19, is charged with manslaughter for the death of 16-year-old Jakiyah Wrightsil.

The arrest warrant affidavit describes a group of teens obviously unfamiliar with handguns. It says they were taking the magazine in and out and passing it around playfully as if it was unloaded.

About 4:20 a.m. on Sunday, Greg Rosche says loud partying at a nearby apartment woke him up. Minutes later, he became alarmed.

"I heard a gunshot and was startled by that and thought I would come out here and see what was going on," he said.

The gunshot rang out in the Veridian Place Apartments in Far North Dallas, killing Jakiyah. Neighbors say it happened in the apartment of a single mother with a teenage daughter. The mother was not home at the time.

Police arrested Hester and charged him with manslaughter. The probable cause affidavit describes it as gun play that turned deadly. It says someone "pulled out a handgun and put it on the kitchen table."

Police say the loaded handgun was being passed around the crowd and eventually to Hester. In the court document, witnesses say “Hester had the handgun and was playing around with it, putting it to several people's heads and pointing it at them."

The affidavit says Jakiyah thought the gun was a BB gun. It says "Wrightsil was telling… Hester to shoot her in the leg, when… Hester put the gun to her head and pulled the trigger shooting… Wrightsil in her head."

Hester left the scene and was arrested a couple of hours later in Mesquite. Police say he admitted the handgun discharged while he was holding it.

"It' something I don't wish on anybody,” Rosche said. “I don't think it, under the circumstances, it was malicious. That they had intent on hurting the girl. But, unfortunately, the situation ended up the way it did."

Police have not said who owns the gun. Hester is in the process of posting a $50,000 bond.