LEE’S SUMMIT, Mo. — A Lee’s Summit teenager is accused of shooting and killing a friend in the basement of the victim’s home.
Prosecutors charged 18-year-old Cooper Ashley with involuntary manslaughter in the May 13 shooting of 18-year-old Dakota Wrightsman.
Lee’s Summit police responded to a shooting call at a home near SE King and SE Third streets around 1 a.m.
According to court documents, emergency responders found Wrightsman bleeding from his head and neck near the top of the stairs on the second story. He died from his injuries.
Wrightsman’s father told officers that he was outside and heard a gunshot. He went inside and saw his son running upstairs to his mother. The court document also shows he told detectives that his son was in the basement of the house with Cooper and two other people at the time of the shooting.
When detectives interviewed Cooper about the shooting the teenager said he, Wrightsman and two other people were in the basement of Wrightsman’s home. Cooper said he noticed a handgun on the floor and picked it up. The court document says Cooper said he had a finger on the trigger and a single shot fired from the gun. Tests found gunshot residue on Cooper’s hands.
Cooper also admitted to investigators that he consumed marijuana shortly before the shooting according to the court paperwork.
One of the other witnesses in the basement at the time of the shooting provided more information about the shooting when detectives asked how Wrightsman died.
The probable cause statement shows the witness told officers the gun belonged to him. He said he thought the gun fell out of the pocket of his hoodie when he and another witness were wrestling over a beanbag in the Wrightsman’s basement.
According to the court document, the witnesses said right after the shooting Cooper said he thought the gun was his airsoft gun, although Cooper never mentioned the airsoft gun to detectives.
The witness continued and said that following the shooting Cooper talked about running from the house before asking the others in the basement to help come up with a “story” about what happened.
The witness told officers that Cooper also drank alcohol before the shooting.
Detectives then watched video from the house. It showed Wrightsman’s father asking his son’s three friends what happened in the basement.
“We had the gun. It was on the floor and I went to move it away so this wouldn’t happen and it just went off,” Ashley said according to the probable cause statement.
But during police interviews, the other two witnesses told detectives they saw Cooper pointing the gun directly at Wrightsman’s head according to the court document.
Detectives also interviewed other people who know Cooper. One of the people said he taught Cooper how to shoot guns.
The witnesses also told detectives that Cooper was known to carry an airsoft gun around. They reported that Cooper liked to point the weapon at himself and other people and pull the trigger, according to the probable cause statement.
Cooper posted $5,000 bond and is scheduled to be back in court June 20.