Jamalh Nelson, Gary Man, Charged With Manslaughter After Firing Through Floor, Killing Man

Man Allegedly Shot Gun Through Floor, Killing Man Downstairs

A Gary, Ind. man was charged with manslaughter this week after he fired his gun through the floor of a Chicago apartment and killed another man sleeping in a bedroom below him.

Jamalh Nelson, 32, of Gary, was arrested this week in the Nov. 12 shooting. According to the Chicago Tribune, Nelson had been drinking in a second-floor apartment in the 600 block of West 60th Street around 9:40 p.m. that night when he fired a gun into the floor.

The bullet passed through the floor and struck Dewitt Wright, 62, in the shoulder in his first-floor apartment. Wright was taken to Stroger Hospital in critical condition and died April 12 at Loretto Hospital, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.

Police say Nelson had been playing with the gun at the time it went off, the Sun-Times reports.

Nelson, charged with involuntary manslaughter and unlawful use of a weapon, was ordered held on $2 million bond in the incident.

In a similar shooting in Las Vegas in 2010, Alexander Nestor Portillo was charged with murder with a deadly weapon after he shot into his bedroom floor, fatally wounding a 17-year-old girl standing on the floor below him. Portillo ultimately pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced to serve up to six years in prison.

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