Killeen Police Investigates a Late Night Shooting

Killeen, TX (March 21, 2021): One teenager is recovering from a gunshot wound and another is deceased after attending a hotel room party.

At approximately 12:50 a.m., officers with the Killeen Police Department conducted a traffic stop on a blue sedan for a possible impaired driver at the intersection of W.S. Young Drive and Elms Road. When the officers approached the vehicle, the driver who was the sole occupant, was deceased, suffering from a visible self-inflicted gunshot wound. The 17-year-old juvenile male driver was pronounced deceased at approximately 2:06 a.m. by Justice of the Peace Bill Cooke. He ordered an autopsy to be performed at the Southwestern Institute of Forensic Sciences in Dallas.

While officers were on scene, officers were notified about a gunshot victim at Seton Medical Center Harker Heights. The 18-year-old male victim told officers that he was attending a hotel room party with alcohol at the Shilo Inn, when one of the attendees was brandishing a handgun when it discharged, wounding his hand. The victim provided a description of the suspect and the handgun and it matched the description of the deceased driver in the vehicle.

The preliminary investigation revealed that the two incidents were related.

The investigation to this incident is ongoing and at this time no other information will be released.

Ofelia Miramontez
Public Affairs
Killeen Police Department