According to a report by MyNorthwest.com a Ballard High School senior has been charged as an adult in the February 23 fatal shooting of 54-year-old David Peterson in Greenwood.
Byron K. A. White, 17, was charged today with first-degree murder, attempted robbery, and unlawful possession of a firearm.
According to the report, court documents reveal that White confessed to shooting Peterson in an attempt to steal his cell phone. According to KOMO reports, White later complained to friends that the phone “was not as nice as he had hoped.”
Peterson was out for an evening walk on Sunday, February 23, when he called 911 around 8:27 p.m. to report that he had been the victim of an attempted robbery. While he was on the phone, White returned to the scene.
“We heard the victim in his own voice talking about the incident,” said homicide Det. Cloyd Steiger, who led the investigation for the Seattle Police Department. “He said that the guy was coming back toward him and then there’s a scuffle and the phone went dead.”
MyNorthwest.com reports that Peterson died at the scene of a single gunshot wound to the chest. Court documents reveal the motive for the shooting, as White told friends that Peterson had seen his face and he “had to shoot him.”
“David Peterson went out for a walk around the neighborhood after dinner and never returned,” said King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg. “He was a random victim from a chance encounter with a dangerous young man. That the evidence shows he was murdered for his cell phone by a teenager with a gun makes this all the more tragic and senseless.”
White is now being held in lieu of $2 million bail and is scheduled for arraignment in King County Superior Court on March 17 . If convicted, prosecutors say that he could be sentenced to between 27-35 years in prison.
Photo courtesy of KIRO Radio/Brandi Kruse.
I wonder where he was able to get a gun?
The most dangerous a gun can become is in the hands of a stupid person who is incapable of thought and understanding consequences. If guns could only be made to read the IQ of the person holding it and disable itself when it detects the person is dumber than a pile of rocks.
This should also be held up as the classic case of why cell phones should have a permanent disable feature built into them by the manufacturer. Until cell phones are not worth stealing, things like this will continue to happen. And manufacturers will not change until people make them! They don’t want that feature because they sell more phones when stolen phones have to be replaced. Mail this story to members of Congress!
Or better yet, when one of these so-called ‘smart phones’ detects that it is about to get robbed, it jumps into the robber’s hands instead of trying to act tough and refusing to be given up.
@Josh Congress has been considering a bill like this for quite some time. The concern is with the fact that, if it passes, there exists technology to disable cell phones en masse. I’d rather my cell phone get stolen than give that power to someone.
I blame cell phone companies too!
Only 35 years for cold blooded murder? Eye for an eye, life for a life.
“White later complained to friends that the phone “was not as nice as he had hoped.””
What the hell, who raised this POS with values like this?
Probably useful to revisit this story:
http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19980308&slug=2738567
Interesting story by Alex Tizon. The Times used to do some great work before the internet messed up the revenue stream.