Background: The area of the shooting in Beaverton, Ore. (KPTV/YouTube). Inset: Sky Alexander Korbut (Beaverton Police Department).
A teenage girl in Oregon showed up at her boyfriend's home for a ride — and left by ambulance after he shot her. Her frantic text messages to her mother were later shown at trial.
Sky Alexander Korbut, 20, was sentenced to nearly six years in the Oregon Department of Corrections, the Beaverton Police Department announced. He was found guilty in April of second-degree assault and unlawful possession of a firearm.
On Nov. 21, 2024, at about 4:50 a.m., Korbut and his 16-year-old girlfriend were at his apartment on Southwest Prairie Terrace in Beaverton, Oregon. The city is just west of Portland.
The girl had asked Korbut for a ride home and showed up at his house, according to court documents obtained by Portland NBC affiliate KGW. He was apparently cleaning his room and placed a gun on a dog kennel before showing it to the girl, who told him to "get it out of her face" and slapped it away.
Korbut shot the girl seconds later, according to prosecutors.
After she was shot, the girl texted her mother in a panic.
"I got shot," read one text, followed by "Mama" and "Plz" and "Help me," a screenshot shared with regional Fox affiliate KPTV shows. Her mom had been asking for her location and had just texted her, "I thought u coming home."
Korbut called 911 and told dispatchers that "he had accidentally shot" his girlfriend, the Beaverton Police Department recounted. Officers showed up at the home and found the girl "suffering from a gunshot wound to the abdomen. She was transported to a local hospital with critical injuries."
A GoFundMe set up for the girl said she "was shot in her stomach" and it affected "many organs and parts in her body." Court documents said the bullet hit her intestines, gallbladder, liver, and pancreas, and she "needed 20 liters of blood."
Though doctors apparently told her family "there was a chance she might not make it," the girl survived.
The suspect-turned-felon was initially arrested and charged with third-degree assault. However, as the investigation progressed, that charge was upgraded after "detectives uncovered additional evidence, including statements provided by the victim that contradicted Korbut's account of the shooting."
Korbut told authorities that he had bought the Smith & Wesson handgun illegally from someone "on the street" after failing background checks, according to court records. He seemed perplexed that the gun fired, saying he was "waving" the gun while moving it when "somehow, the gun went off."