OGDEN, Utah, March 21, 2020 (Gephardt Daily) — A teen is being charged as an adult after police say he confessed to the March 14 fatal shooting of his friend at a home in Ogden.
Brandon Parker, 17, is facing a charge of murder, a first-degree felony; and a charge of possession or use of a firearm by a restricted person, a third-degree felony.
Ogden police officers responded at about 5:20 a.m. to 325 Ninth St. on a call reporting a gunshot wound.
In the home, they found the 16-year-old victim with a gunshot wound to his forehead, according to a probable cause statement filed in 2nd Judicial District Court in Ogden.
Ogden Fire Department paramedics arrived and attempted life-saving measures; however, the 16-year-old boy was pronounced deceased at the scene shortly afterward.
Parker reportedly told an officer, “I don’t have the gun; I killed my best friend.”
“Brandon continued to exclaim he had shot his best friend and that he had ‘killed’ him,” the charging document states.
Parker’s parents were asleep in another part of the house when they were awakened by their son. Parker’s mother told officers that he came into her room and yelled that he had shot his friend.
Parker threw the gun on the ground and then tried to pick it up again to shoot himself, the document says, but his mother wrestled the gun away and kept it until police arrived.
According to the document, Parker told detectives he used cocaine earlier in the day and was using DAB (a concentrated form of marijuana) when he shot the victim in the head.
A blood sample was taken from Brandon Parker, and toxicology results are pending.
