Mother speaks out after 18-year-old son gunned down

Almost 36 hours after someone fired 20 to 30 gunshots at a car occupied by her 18-year-old son – killing him at an east Wichita apartment complex – Benita Bell denounced the violence.

Her understanding, Bell said Thursday afternoon, is that her son, Debrylan Bell, had been shot about 12 times. He was a senior at North High School.

“It was a senseless crime,” his mother said. “The people that took him away from me, justice will be served. It was just dumb. It could have been avoided. It could have been worked out.

“My child should still be here.”

Bell spoke to an Eagle reporter a few hours after Wichita police provided her son’s name and said that they had arrested a 17-year-old in the shooting.

The shots rang out a little before 4:30 a.m. on Wednesday in a parking lot behind an apartment complex off East 21st Street between Oliver and Woodlawn. Her son went there to see a friend, she said.

The arrest came about 13 hours after the shooting. The 17-year-old was booked into the Juvenile Detention Facility on suspicion of first-degree murder, Wichita police Sgt. Nikki Woodrow said.

Police are scheduled to present the case to prosecutors Friday afternoon, and the 17-year-old could face charges in court Monday, district attorney spokesman Dan Dillon said.

Both the victim and the suspect are “documented gang members,” Woodrow said. Police use criteria to decide that, she said.

But Benita Bell on Thursday denied that her son was a gang member.

Investigators still working

Woodrow said Thursday afternoon that it wasn’t clear whether the shooting itself was gang-related. Investigators are “still trying to work through why this happened,” she said.

Police are still seeking several people who could have information about the shooting, Woodrow said. Anyone with information about the crime is asked to call investigators at 268-4407 or call Crime Stoppers anonymously at 267-2111.

Benita Bell said her son’s biggest love was basketball. He played in a league. He liked to pose for photos with his younger relatives.

He was a new student in his senior year at North High at the time of his death. He also had attended West High, Heights High and South High and was in learning programs for teens who have been suspended or are being held at the Juvenile Detention Facility, said Wichita school district spokeswoman Susan Arensman.

Records show that Debrylan Bell had been in trouble with the law: In December 2014, when he was 16, he was charged as a juvenile with aggravated assault involving a gun – a felony – but the charge was amended to misdemeanor assault.

He pleaded no contest, court records show. As part of his sentence, he was put on intensive probation until this past April 9 and had to follow a curfew and stay in school.

A sentencing document also said he was subject to “supplemental Gang conditions” at the discretion of his supervision officer.

In March 2015, prosecutors charged Bell, still 16 at the time, with being a minor in possession of a firearm – a “Hi-Point model CF-380 handgun … at the YMCA.”

He pleaded no contest, and a judge again sentenced him to intensive probation.

This story was originally published October 6, 2016 at 4:38 PM with the headline "Mother speaks out after 18-year-old son gunned down."