Background: Law enforcement officers investigate after a shooting takes place outside Oliver Citywide Academy in Pittsburgh, Pa., on May 24, 2023 (WTAE/YouTube). Inset top: Jaymier Perry (Allegheny County Jail). Inset bottom: Derrick Harris Jr. (GoFundMe).
A Pennsylvania teenager has admitted to fatally shooting a classmate outside their school because the victim had taken his Beats headphones.
Jaymier Perry was 15 years old when he was charged with the murder of Derrick Harris Jr., who was also 15.
The defendant pleaded guilty on Wednesday to first-degree murder, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported. He faces 35 years to life in prison when he is sentenced on July 29 — giving him the possibility of serving less than the life sentence because he was a minor at the time of the crime.
At about 7:25 a.m. on May 24, 2023, officers with the Pittsburgh Police Department were alerted to a shooting at Oliver Citywide Academy. The public school in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was designed for students requiring special education.
The police department said its technology recorded 11 shots, and when officers arrived, they found Harris "shot multiple times" outside the school's front entrance. Other cops said they spotted another person — Perry — running from the scene with a gun, and they arrested him and seized the weapon.
Authorities performed lifesaving measures on Harris and transported him in critical condition to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Investigators interviewed Perry and learned important details about what occurred in the days leading up to the shooting. Perry maintained that, two days earlier, Harris had taken his Beats headphones — and the defendant hatched a plan.
He reportedly said he knew that he and Harris were often the first students to arrive at the school. On the morning of the fatal shooting, he approached Harris on the school steps.
Allegheny County Deputy District Attorney Ryan Kiray recounted how Perry shot Harris "until the gun was empty" — hitting him 10 times. Surveillance footage then apparently showed the defendant approach Harris on the ground and kick and stomp on his head before he ran.
The DA said that when detectives asked Perry why he continued the attack after the shooting, he told them, "'If you're going to shoot someone, you may as well finish the job,' before laughing about the shooting."
Months later, Oliver Citywide Academy was effectively closed and divided into four satellite schools. Within an 18-month period, in addition to the shooting of Harris, another 15-year-old was shot while leaving the school, and a student allegedly sexually assaulted a teacher, per local ABC affiliate WTAE.
A GoFundMe set up for Harris' family remembered him as "a kindhearted, loving son and brother" whose "smile and sense of humor brought so much love and light to those who love him."
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