Background: The home on the 400 block of West Street in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, where the shooting occurred (Google Maps). Insets (clockwise from top right): Denajah Bailey (Montgomery County District Attorney's Office), Xavier Jeffers (Ervina White Beauford Funeral Service, PC), Amaury Sahad (Montgomery County District Attorney's Office).
Three friends were sitting inside a Pennsylvania bedroom passing a stolen gun around when one of them fatally shot another in the head, authorities say.
Denajah Bailey, 20, has been charged with third-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter, possessing an instrument of crime, and recklessly endangering another person in connection with the death of 21-year-old Xavier Jeffers, the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office announced.
Amaury Sahad, 20, has been charged with receiving stolen property, firearms not to be carried without a license, and possessing an instrument of crime.
On May 20, the three friends were in Bailey's bedroom at her home on the 400 block of West Street in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, authorities said. The area is about 40 miles northwest of Philadelphia.
"[A]ll three were handling a firearm that was illegally obtained by Sahad," the DA's office added. When Bailey got hold of the weapon, she "pointed the firearm at Jeffers while she and Jeffers were on her bed" and pulled the trigger, "shooting Jeffers in the head."
A fourth person was apparently witness to the incident, too, at least virtually. She told law enforcement that she was FaceTiming with Jeffers and saw the three friends passing the gun around and pretending to shoot each other, KYW Newsradio reported, citing court documents.
Bailey and Jeffers were reportedly laughing when a gunshot could be heard, the phone fell to the floor, and Sahad said, "What did you do?"
Someone called 911 about the "accidental shooting," and officers with the Pottstown Police Department responded to the home. When cops went to the back bedroom of the home, they found Jeffers "suffering from a gunshot wound to the left side of his head."
The DA's office said investigators recovered a loaded black Glock 43X handgun from the bedroom and that a check of the firearm's serial number "found that it had been reported stolen" to the Philadelphia Police Department on Dec. 30, 2025.
When Bailey spoke with police, she is said to have told them she pulled the trigger two other times that evening, with one of those being with the gun pointed at her own head, and nothing happened.
Jeffers was pronounced dead, and an autopsy on his body done by the Montgomery County Coroner's Office "determined that the cause of death was a gunshot wound to the head/neck and the manner of death was homicide."
Bailey and Sahad were arraigned in court, with the former having a bail set at $50,000 and the latter having a bail set at $20,000. "Both were also ordered to have no contact with co-defendant and witnesses in the case, as well as no firearms," the DA's office said.
The defendants are scheduled to appear in court for a preliminary hearing on June 9.
Both the suspects and the victim were from Pottstown, authorities noted.