Conference held after shooting death of Haywood Co. student
HAYWOOD COUNTY, Tenn. — A news conference was held after a homicide claimed a young girl’s life.
It was held Monday at the Board of Education Building by the Superintendent of Haywood County Schools, Amie Marsh, the Haywood County Sheriff’s Department, and the Brownsville Police Department.
The conference followed the death of Christine Michael Friday night.
She was traveling towards Brownsville on Highway 19 with three other teens who had just left the Haywood versus Ripley basketball game in Ripley.
The vehicle she was in was struck multiple times by gunfire. One round entered the vehicle through the trunk and struck Michael in her lower back while sitting in the backseat.
Kevion Davis, 18, and a 16-year-old male juvenile, both Haywood High School students, were arrested in the connection with the murder.
Davis has been booked in the Haywood County Jail without bond and held on first-degree murder charges, and the juvenile will be held in the detention center by juvenile court officials for first-degree
murder.
Haywood County Sheriff Billy Garrett says that the investigation is still ongoing.
“The investigation is continuing. Not sure if we will have anymore arrests at this point, but we will do as the investigation leads us,” he said.
Marsh says that the Michael family has their support.
“We want to give our support on the incident that took the life of Christine Michael’s on Friday night. That incident will forever change the lives of a great many people. Our heartfelt condolences go out to the Michael family during this extremely difficult time. We want to support them and uplift them as they work through the pain that this tragedy has brought to the family,” Marsh said.
Marsh also expressed how Michael was a great student and how she had such a bright future.
“Christine was a promising student. Who had tremendous plans for her future, and we are deeply saddened by her passing and by the brilliant light that was extinguished Friday night. Please keep her family in your thoughts,” she said.
Garrett pleads with people that are raising today’s teenagers to get involved in their lives, and that they do not need to have access to these guns.
“Parents, guardians, grandmammas, aunts, whoever is listening to me now, you need to get involved in your teenager’s life. They do not need guns in their hands. They do not understand the full consequences of using these guns. They do not understand the consequences of losing lives. They do not see it yet,” Garrett said.
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