Girl Killed After a Warning Not to Talk

A man who warned a group of friends that he would shoot the next person who talked shot a 14-year-old girl to death when she spoke, police said.

Nina Scott was shot in the forehead as she and her friends sat on her grandmother’s porch. Kevin Barnes, 18, of Lonoke was charged with first-degree murder Wednesday and is being held on $100,000 bond.

“It was totally senseless. It was horseplay,” said Police Chief Floyd Van Horne. “There was no physical altercation, no verbal argument. You had six young people sitting on a porch talking.”

Tina Coleman, Nina’s aunt, said the other friends told her that Barnes pulled the gun on two of them and then issued his warning.

“He said: ‘I’m going to shoot whoever says the next word.’ That was Nina,” Coleman said.

The victim’s grandmother, Lillie Belle Dodson, said she was inside the house when the shooting occurred Monday night.

“I jumped up and went to see what had happened. Nina had been shot. She was lying over there and the porch was full of blood.” Dodson said.