Mother shot dead in row with teenage brothers over Christmas presents in Florida
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00:00 Averill Baldwin, her 10 month old son, her six year old son,
00:07 her 14 year old brother, Demarcus, her 15 year old brother,
00:13 Darcus, and their mother, Joyce Birch, who's a black female with
00:19 a date of birth of June 25th, 1984, went Christmas shopping at a store here in Argo.
00:26 While they're shopping, 15 year old Darcus was jealous that their mother,
00:31 Joyce, was getting 14 year old Demarcus more gifts than he was receiving.
00:36 So they had this family spat about who was getting what and
00:39 what money was being spent on who.
00:41 And they're having this big thing going on in the store and
00:44 they're all arguing with each other.
00:46 They left the store and headed to their grandmother's house,
00:52 which is where the incident happened at 2357 22nd Avenue Southwest in Argo.
00:59 They all piled into one car and they were heading over to her house.
01:03 The Coley's, along with Joyce Birch,
01:06 lived at 608 Westminster Boulevard in Oldsmar.
01:11 They were going to their grandmother's house because she was gonna watch
01:15 Bree's six year old and 11 month old baby when she went to work.
01:22 So they got there to this house on 22nd Avenue Southwest at about 145 PM on Sunday.
01:29 Darcus, who's the 15 year old,
01:32 entered the home and went into the kitchen with his grandmother.
01:37 Demarcus, the 14 year old, stood in the doorway because again, they're all arguing.
01:44 And they're having this big spat about what happened while shopping and
01:47 who's getting what and who didn't get what for Christmas.
01:50 So this is just normal what people do when they have these young kids getting
01:53 spats like this.
01:54 And of course, I'm saying this sarcastically because he's all mad at his
01:57 brother about what his brother was getting and is not getting.
01:59 He stood in the doorway and he took out his 40 caliber semi-automatic handgun.
02:04 And he pointed it at Darcus and told him he was going to shoot him in the head.
02:08 So you got the 14 year old who's mad at the 15 year old because mom's not buying
02:16 equal amounts of gifts to get to grandma's house and he takes out his gun.
02:22 And tells him he's gonna shoot him in the head.
02:26 So Demarcus tries to get Darcus to fight.
02:29 Darcus said he didn't wanna fight and told him to get out of the house and
02:33 he didn't want anything to do with him.
02:34 Now, one of the boy's uncles was present in the home and
02:39 excuse me, he separated them by moving Demarcus out of the house and
02:45 moving him out into the driveway area.
02:47 This is the house here to my right, again to your left, and
02:50 that's the door where he was standing into and
02:53 that's the driveway area that he moved him out to where this happened.
02:57 And so Demarcus left the doorway,
03:01 Darcus is still in the house in the kitchen.
03:03 Demarcus was standing by a parked vehicle in the driveway when
03:08 Abriel told Demarcus, quote, you all need to leave that stuff alone.
03:12 Why are you trying to start it?
03:14 It's Christmas.
03:15 And at that point, Abriel was in the driveway and
03:17 she was carrying her ten month old baby in a carrier in her hand.
03:21 Demarcus then began arguing with Abriel and used some very,
03:26 very derogatory language that I won't repeat at all and all kinds of profanity.
03:31 He was calling her a whore and all kinds of other stuff and
03:35 stated that he was going to shoot her and that he was gonna, quote, shoot the baby too.
03:41 Demarcus then moved toward Abriel and shot her in the chest with a 40 caliber
03:46 semi-automatic handgun, again, while she's carrying the baby.
03:49 Abriel fell to the ground, so did the baby.
03:52 The baby wasn't hurt because the baby was in a carrier.
03:54 So when Demarcus falls to the ground, Darcus comes out of the house.
04:01 And again, Darcus is 15, and he takes out his 45 caliber semi-automatic handgun,
04:08 because again, I'll say this sarcastically, just normal that all these kids,
04:11 that's what you do, right?
04:12 You just carry handguns.
04:13 When you get in a spat with your sibling, you take out your guns,
04:15 you have a gun battle.
04:16 So he takes out his gun and tells Demarcus, so
04:21 Darcus tells Demarcus, quote, you shot my MF sister.
04:26 And then Darcus shot Demarcus one time in the stomach.
04:30 So Demarcus falls to the ground.
04:34 And when Darcus shot Demarcus, Demarcus was unarmed.
04:39 And there's about an eight second gap between the time that Demarcus shot Brie,
04:45 and then Darcus comes out and shoots Demarcus.
04:48 And when he shot him, he no longer had possession of the gun.
04:52 Darcus, the 15 year old, then ran,
05:00 threw his gun in a nearby yard, fled to a relative's house up in Clearwater,
05:05 where we subsequently arrested him.