Inset: Jabari Cowart (St. Lucie County Jail). Background: The 2900 block of Avenue G in Fort Pierce, Florida, where Cowart allegedly shot a man to death with BB gun (Google Maps).
A 36-year-old Florida man is accused of killing his friend with a BB gun when he blasted the victim in the armpit with the pellet that entered his lungs and caused him to bleed out.
Jabari Cowart is charged with manslaughter in the death of 34-year-old Shawn Johnson.
Fort Pierce police responded around 8 p.m. Saturday to a home in the 2900 block of Avenue G for a shooting. When they arrived, cops found Johnson lying in the driveway with a puncture wound in his right armpit that was consistent with a BB gun pellet.
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A probable cause arrest affidavit said paramedics were treating Johnson when they realized his lungs were “filling with blood indicating that the projectile had made entry into his lungs, and that his injury was life threatening.” Johnson was rushed to the hospital where he died.
Cowart claimed Johnson accidentally shot himself, but cops noted that the BB gun’s rifle barrel was “fairly long thus making it nearly impossible” for the victim to do so in the area in which he suffered the wound.
Other witnesses said Cowart, Johnson and two other men were in the backyard of the home shooting at trees. Cowart asked if he could see the gun. Once handed the rifle, Cowart allegedly turned toward Johnson and pulled the trigger.
Johnson “grabbed his side” and walked away before he eventually collapsed.
Detectives confronted Cowart with the witness statements, but he continued to stick with his story about Johnson shooting himself. Cowart was “deflecting and tried to shift the blame.”
“He would take long pauses during his responses and tried to avoid answering questions,” cops wrote.
Cowart asked for an attorney, and detectives stopped the interview.
Cops arrested Cowart and took him to the St. Lucie County Jail, where he is being held on a $50,000 bond. His next court date was not immediately listed.
The post Man shot by BB gun dies from internal bleeding after pal blasts him in armpit with pellet that entered his lungs, cops say first appeared on Law & Crime.
