Bobby Antonio Davis is being held without bond at the Dougherty County Jail on charges of murder, possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime and possession of a firearm by a person younger than 18.
APD Cpl. Terrence Whitlock with the Robbery and Homicide Unit said police took Davis into custody after the 6:55 p.m. shooting at 1309 E. Society Ave. Wednesday. The home is owned by another man, whom police have not been able to speak with yet, Whitlock said.
According to Whitlock, Davis admitted to accidentally shooting his cousin, Edward William Bell Jr., 17.
“(He said) no more than he had the gun in his hand and the gun fired,” Whitlock said during a morning news conference Thursday.
Dougherty District Attorney Ken Hodges said a murder charge means that a person kills another person “with malice aforethought.”
“Murder is committed when someone unlawfully and with malice aforethought ... causes the death of another human being,” he said.
Bell was taken to Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital where he died from the injury. His body is being taken to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation crime lab in Atlanta for an autopsy, Whitlock said.
A separate source familiar with the incident who didn’t want to be identified said Wednesday Bell was shot in the chest.
Neither Bell nor Davis lives at the East Society Avenue home where the shooting occurred, though Whitlock didn’t have their addresses available Thursday. Neither of the 17-year-olds attends school, he said, and police are investigating the possibility of gang connections.
Whitlock said police were also investigating whether the pistol was registered and to whom.
“Any time we have a death of a young person, it’s a concern to the Albany Police Department,” he said. “There is a great concern with guns for the APD, therefore we will pursue getting guns off the street.”
Police are unsure of who else may have been in the home at the time of the shooting and are asking for other witnesses to come forward, he said.
Bell’s was the seventh murder of 2008 in Albany.