Image of the neighborhood where Jaelynn Poturalski, 18, was allegedly shot and killed by her boyfriend, 16 (via YouTube screengrab/WTVG). Inset: a picture of Poturalski is seen at a candlelight vigil (via YouTube screengrab/WTOL).
The parents of a 16-year-old Ohio boy suspected of shooting and killing his 18-year-old girlfriend last weekend say their son was responsible for her death but insist the fatal violence was an accident.
On Sept. 2, late in the morning, Jaelynn Poturalski was shot in the chest on Langdon Street in the Southside neighborhood of Toledo.
According to the Lucas County Coroner’s Office, she was taken to St. Vincent’s Hospital where she succumbed to her injuries less than an hour later and was pronounced dead at 11:26 a.m. Poturalski’s manner of death was ruled a homicide in an autopsy performed the next day.
Although a Toledo Police Department press release and report identify the 16-year-old suspect, Law&Crime is not releasing the minor’s name at this time. On Thursday, a spokesperson for the TPD told Law&Crime that there are no updates in the case.
The boy was arrested, detained in the Juvenile Justice Center, and charged with one count of murder, according to the TPD. The alleged murder weapon was identified as an automatic pistol or handgun.
On the day in question, police were initially called about a large street fight, according to local CBS affiliate WTOL.
Officers arrived to find Poturalski “suffering from at least one gunshot wound,” the TPD press release says.
“(It was) a neighborhood dispute that somehow turned into a fight and at some point, a gun was pulled,” the TPD told WTOL.
The suspect’s parents, in an interview with local ABC affiliate WTVG, say the dispute was not between the teens.
The boy’s parents said the dispute centered around much younger children – neighborhood kids around five and six years old – and how they were not getting along.
“It was like a little neighborhood dispute and older kids,” the boy’s mother said. “The cops are called one time. They didn’t do nothing and then the older kids down the street got into it and it turned into this.”
Nearly 100 friends and relatives attended a candlelight vigil for Poturalski on the night the young girl died, WTOL reported.
During the dispute, the parents claim, Poturalski was trying to calm her boyfriend down when he pulled out a gun.
“He said, ‘I was just trying to scare them,”” his mother continued in comments to WTVG. “‘I didn’t mean to shoot her.’”
The boy’s father was adamant that his son made a mistake – but also blamed the teenager for what he allegedly did.
“Under no circumstance should my son have had a gun,” he told WTVG before anticipating a common cliche used by family members close to perpetrators of gun violence: “We’re not the parents to say, ‘Oh, our child would never! Our child would never!’ We’re not them. Bottom line is: our child should have never picked up a gun. Behind him picking up a gun, someone he loves is gone.”
The suspect appeared in court on Tuesday where he was denied bond.
The boy’s mother echoed the blame but stressed the two teenagers were deeply loved – by the boy’s parents and by one another.
“Nobody realizes how much they loved each other and how much we loved her,” the suspect’s grieving mother told WTVG through audible tears. “Like, we’re not just saying – like – or sticking up for our son. We know he messed up. We know that. But people need to know that we loved her so much. That we feel so bad.”
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