The shooter responsible for killing 20-year-old nursing student Destiny Danielle Washington last Thursday is in custody.
The Birmingham Police Department revealed that Carlos Londarrius Stephens, a 22-year-old student also from the University of Alabama, Birmingham (UAB), surrendered to authorities two days after the incident. He has been charged with capital murder for shooting and killing Washington and is being held without bond at the Jefferson County Jail.
Arrest: Destiny Washington Homicide Case. pic.twitter.com/8PLrf9EsQ7
— Bhampolice (@BhamPolice) December 22, 2020
Local police said they received a call about a shooting that occurred at 9:40 pm on Thursday, December 17. Authorities found at least one shell casing in the parking lot.
AirPods Sale Gone Wrong
Washington’s family said that on the night of her death, she was with her boyfriend, who she had been in a relationship with since high school. Advance Local reported that they were in the UAB Hill Center campus parking lot for a sales transaction involving AirPods.
The couple was trying to sell Stephens AirPods; however, the transaction went downhill when they realized he was trying to pay for the headphones with fake money. When they returned to their car the suspect is believed to have fired a shot into the vehicle, which hit Washington.
Her boyfriend quickly drove to the first emergency room he found. Medical staff began working to save Washington, however, she was pronounced dead at 10:10 pm.
Washington was known to be excelling in her studies and was slated to graduate in May 2021 as a registered nurse.
Concerns Over Campus Safety
Many students took to Twitter to express their disbelief over the shooting. One student posted that UAB had failed to alert the campus community of the incident.
A girl was killed outside the Hill center and UAB didn’t send a B-Alert or anything about it ?
— ✨Nicole✨ (@Nallyse_) December 18, 2020
A response to the tweet explained that the university did not send out an alert because the UAB Police “determined there was no active threat at the time.”
Apparently they didn’t send one out bc there was “no active threat to campus” as if there isn’t a whole murderer on the loose who could literally be anywhere pic.twitter.com/TPCLeCUcqc
— Maddy (@AiMaddygray3) December 18, 2020