{"id":228713,"date":"2026-06-26T11:48:28","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T11:48:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/228713\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T11:48:28","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T11:48:28","slug":"14-year-old-boy-held-on-all-charges-in-may-shooting-death-of-14-year-old-girl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/228713\/","title":{"rendered":"14-year-old boy held on all charges in May shooting death of 14-year-old girl"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 14-year-old Upper Darby youth has been held over for Common Pleas Court on murder and related charges in the May 14 shooting death of his girlfriend, also 14.<\/a><\/p>\n

Nazim Lar, of the first block of Powell Lane, is charged with third-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter, possession of a firearm by a minor and possessing an instrument of crime with intent.<\/p>\n

Magisterial District Judge Christopher R. Mattox heard from Upper Darby Detectives William Gottsch and Joseph Christello during a preliminary hearing Thursday morning at the County Courthouse in Media.<\/p>\n

Gottsch told Deputy District Attorney Sophia Polites that he was blocks away from the crime scene on the 100 block of Springton Road when a call came over the radio of someone yelling that another person had been shot in the foot or head.<\/p>\n

He arrived and held the back door until other officers cleared the home, then went to an upstairs rear bedroom where he found the victim suffering from a gunshot wound to her forehead.<\/p>\n

The girl, whose name is being withheld at the request of her family, was still alive with a faint pulse when medics arrived and transported her to Penn Presbyterian Hospital, Gottsch said. She was later pronounced deceased.<\/p>\n

A medical examiner\u2019s report determined the cause of death was a gunshot wound to the head and the manner was homicide, Gottsch said. He noted the report indicated there was muzzle abrasion present on the entry wound, meaning the gun had been pressed against the victim\u2019s skin.<\/p>\n

The testimony<\/p>\n

Gottsch also went through messages in an Instagram group chat amongst Lar and his friends. In that string of texts, Lar allegedly said, \u201cShe pointed it at her head bro.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo who pulled the trigger???\u201d another unknown person asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cMe bro,\u201d Lar responded. \u201cI didn\u2019t know it was one in the head.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lar then recounts the series of events leading up to the shooting.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I locked the slide back. Without the mag. (A friend) put the mag in and unlocked the slide. He took out the mag, gave me the gun and he took the mag. So I sit right next to (the victim). (She) say, \u2018You\u2019re gonna shoot me? Shoot me. KM (kill me). Then put the gun to her head. I pulled the trigger and then boom, bro. I watched her head fall back and her eyes (rolled) back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gottsch said he saw a small handgun on the bed with a fired cartridge casing stuck in the slide.<\/p>\n

On cross-examination by defense counsel Olivia Mastrangelo, Gottsch said the firearm had not been removed from a safe prior to the shooting and that a magazine had fallen out of the bedsheet as the girl was being transported.<\/p>\n

Christello said he had spoken with Lar in a recorded interview with his sister present the same day of the shooting.<\/p>\n

Lar allegedly told him that school had let out early that day and that he met with the victim, a male friend and a female friend outside the school at about 1 p.m. before heading to the victim\u2019s house.<\/p>\n

Christello said Lar told him the kids knew a firearm was in the house from earlier visits and retrieved it from a second floor bedroom.<\/p>\n

At one point, Lar said his male friend was playing with the gun in the bathroom, removing the magazine and reinserting it, and pulling the slide back to lock it, Christello said.<\/p>\n

During those interactions, Lar said the friend removed the magazine with the slide locked back, then inserted the magazine and allowed the slide to return to its normal position. He then removed the magazine again and handed the firearm to Lar, Christello said.<\/p>\n

Christello said returning the slide to its normal position with the magazine inside would have chambered a round, but there was no indication Lar knew that had happened.<\/p>\n

Gottsch had also told Mastrangelo that some firearms are not operable with the magazine removed, but those safety features are usually stamped on the weapon.<\/p>\n

Christello said Lar did tell him that he has watched Youtube videos about gun safety and knows that a person handling a firearm should always check the chamber to make sure it is clear.<\/p>\n

After receiving the firearm from the friend, Christello said Lar told him he entered the victim\u2019s room, but provided a slightly different version of events than was discussed in the group text.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe sat to her right, had the firearm down by his side,\u201d Christello said. \u201cHe said the victim had grabbed his arm with the firearm in it, moved his arm up, placed it to her forehead. His finger was on the rail of the gun. She then took his finger, placed it on the trigger and that\u2019s when the gun went off.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said that Lar told him he panicked and fled from the house through the rear door with his male friend, then realized the other female was not with them and ran back to get her. The trio then left the scene again from the back door, he said.<\/p>\n

In another string of group chat messages read by Gottsch, Lar says that he is about to pass by his girlfriend\u2019s house and that there is police tape up. He also blames another girl, saying she wanted to sit with him and his friend during an assembly, which upset the victim.<\/p>\n

According to additional information previously provided by police:<\/p>\n

The firearm was a pink SCCY CPX-2 handgun with a black slide that the teens had gotten out of the victim\u2019s mother\u2019s bedroom closet.<\/p>\n

The entire group was in the bedroom with a couple of them sitting on the edge of the bed watching TV and the shooting occurred behind them on the bed.<\/p>\n

Lar made a call after they fled the house, telling someone, \u201cI just killed (the victim)!\u201d<\/p>\n

It was not the first time Lar and others had played with the firearm. On another occasion, Lar and one of the witnesses pulled the trigger and pretended to shoot the victim, but her friend told them to stop because the victim was getting upset. There was no time frame applied to that episode.<\/p>\n

Closing arguments<\/p>\n

Mastrangelo argued only the murder charge at the conclusion of the hearing, claiming there was no evidence of the requisite malice for it to be held over.<\/p>\n

While there was evidence of a 14-year-old who was probably fascinated with firearms playing with a gun, she said, there was no evidence of ill-will or hardness of heart.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we have here is a misfortunate situation, a very misfortunate situation that could have been avoided with proper safety of a firearm,\u201d she said. \u201c\u2026 We know there was no intent to use the gun to kill. We know that she moved the gun. So we have evidence presented by the commonwealth that my client didn\u2019t intentionally use the gun on a vital part of the victim\u2019s body, which is how we get malice. He did not put it to her head; she did.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mastrangelo added that according to the version of events Lar presented to Christello, the gun did not fire until the victim put Lar\u2019s finger on the trigger.<\/p>\n

She asked that the judge consider Lar\u2019s age and lack of maturity, and said that he panicked when he fled from the home but that it did not evidence consciousness of guilt.<\/p>\n

Polites argued that the malice required for third-degree murder is legally distinct from malice in first- and second-degree murder, in that it only requires an unjustified disregard for the extremely high risk that the actions of the defendant would result in death or serious bodily injury.<\/p>\n

She said that in a case where some kids are playing with a firearm and it accidentally goes off, the involuntary manslaughter charge might be more appropriate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not what we have here,\u201d Polites said. \u201cWe don\u2019t have an accidental discharge. We have a lethal weapon that is put to someone\u2019s forehead and an intentional pulling of the trigger. That\u2019s not involuntary manslaughter. It has risen to another level now. It has risen to third-degree murder.\u201d<\/p>\n

Polites noted that Lar said twice in the group chat that he pulled the trigger, then had the presence of mind while trying to flee the first time to realize he had left someone behind and returned for them.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe did that to avoid consequences,\u201d Polites said. \u201cHe was protecting himself. \u2026 When he went back into the room, he didn\u2019t render aid. He didn\u2019t do anything. He left her there bleeding with a devastating gunshot wound to her head. And he left because he was so concerned about himself, whether he would get out of this situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether the case is later moved to juvenile court due to the defendant\u2019s age was of no consequence for Thursday\u2019s proceedings or the evidence presented, Polites said, and that evidence did support the third-degree murder charge.<\/p>\n

Mattox said that given the \u201cmore likely than not\u201d burden at the preliminary hearing stage and drawing all inferences in favor of the commonwealth, as he must, all charges would be held over.<\/p>\n

Lar remains free on a $500,000 bond. His next court date will be a formal arraignment at the County Courthouse on July 22.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 14-year-old Upper Darby youth has been held over for Common Pleas Court on murder and related charges…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4524,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[46,212,182,139,28,210,147,149,148,150],"class_list":["post-228713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-upper-darby","tag-courts","tag-delaware-county","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-top-stories-dtd","tag-upper-darby","tag-upper-darby-headlines","tag-upper-darby-news","tag-upper-darby-township"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}