Background: Aniyah Womack, who was accidentally killed after being shot with a rifle in May, smiles in family photo shared by the Jacksonville County Sheriff's Office. Inset: Mariah Clayton booking photo.
More than 100 days after Aniyah Womack was shot in the stomach with a rifle that was being used as a prop and then left outside of a hospital alone in Florida where she later died, a woman suspected in her death has been charged with manslaughter.
In an announcement by the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office on Facebook, officers reported that an investigation into the May 24 shooting led them to suspect Mariah Jynnae Clayton, 20, also of Florida.
Clayton was arrested on Oct. 6, and according to public records, she remains in jail in Jacksonville on a $250,000 bond.
Womack, just 19 at the time of her death, was reportedly filming TikTok videos with Clayton in the bathroom of an acquaintance's apartment. According to local CW affiliate WJXT, the sheriff's office said that after interviewing people who were in the apartment with the women, a witness said that Clayton was holding the rifle as Womack filmed her "popping out of the shower" with the weapon.
Another man in the apartment reportedly told them not to play with the gun and at one point allegedly tried to take it from Clayton. The sheriff's office reported that Clayton started to back up with the rifle still in her hands. The man said he wanted to check something and reached for it but before he could touch it, the gun went off. Another witness, according to police, said the man wanted to see if the safety was on. Witnesses said Clayton was still holding the gun when it went off.
Womack's family have been devastated by the loss. The victim's cousin Autumn Redding told WJXT they want justice for Womack and encouraged families who have undergone similar tragic losses to connect with support and advocacy groups like MAD DADS or Silent Women Speaking, both of which provide support to parents who have lost children to violence.
In a gut-wrenching plea to First Coast News made four months ago, Womack's mother begged for people who were involved in the death of her daughter to come forward.
Police said the night Womack was shot, she was driven to an area hospital with two people in tow, including Clayton. Clayton, however, reportedly told police that she saw Womack walking alongside the road when she and the driver decided to pick her up.
But the driver of the car reportedly told police a different story. Police said the man recounted driving the car after he had first gone to the apartment complex where Womack and Clayton were.
He had gone to the apartment to purchase weed, he said, but once there, the people inside told him that Womack had shot herself and needed a ride to the hospital.
It was just after midnight when sheriffs were called to the hospital where Womack eventually died.
Though sheriffs were initially told a crime scene existed at an intersection near where Clayton claimed to have come upon Womack, there was no sign of a crime there.
A week before Clayton was arrested, Womack's aunt reeled at the thought of her niece being left at the hospital alone with a gunshot wound to the stomach.
"Any accident, you stay by your side. You follow through. This wasn't that," Redding told WJXT.
