WASHINGTON — We are learning heartbreaking new details in D.C.'s first homicide of the New Year: The shooting death of Ashlei Hinds of Clinton, Maryland.
The 18-year-old college freshman at LSU was home for the holidays and attended a New Year's party with friends at the Embassy Suites Hotel on Military Road, NW in Friendship Heights.
According to court documents, about six people were having a sleepover when the person who rented the room invited a guy over who then brought five other young men including the alleged shooter, 18-year-old Jelani Cousin. Cousin turned himself in to the police Tuesday but in court Wednesday, he pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder while armed. His defense attorney argued while witnesses at the party spotted Cousin with a gun, no one testified to seeing the shooting.
Court documents detail the moments before the shooting. Turns out, Cousin is a relative of the person who hosted the party, but witnesses told police he was “trying to have sex” with one of the young ladies who was drunk. The girls describe the group of guys as “rude and disrespectful.” They were told to leave.
Court records indicated that’s when Cousin, who already showed his gun, allegedly said, “I’ll blow this spot up” repeatedly before firing two shots through the closed door. Both bullets hit 18-year-old Ashlei Hinds who was on the other side gathering her belongings so she could leave. According to the medical examiner, Hinds was shot twice in the left arm. One bullet traveled to her lungs and she collapsed in the rear bedroom and later died from her injuries.
Cousin is back in court on January 16.
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