Boys charged with murder after a sandbag thrown from an overpass kills a man
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(CNN) — Authorities in Toledo, Ohio, have charged four boys with murder after a sandbag they allegedly dropped from an interstate overpass killed a passenger in a car.
Authorities say the three 14-year-olds and a 13-year-old threw sandbags and other objects onto the southbound lanes of Interstate 75 on December 19.
One of the bags crashed through the window of a car traveling below, hitting passenger Marquise Byrd on the head.
Byrd, a 22-year-old from Warren, Michigan, later died.
The boys, who have not been identified because they are minors, will be arraigned Wednesday on charges of murder and vehicular vandalism.
Lori Olender, deputy chief of the juvenile division of the Lucas County prosecutor’s office, said the teens hit more than one vehicle. So they face an additional charge of vandalism for hitting a second car. No one was injured there, Olender said.
At a detention hearing last week, the boys denied the allegations against them, The Blade reported.
It’s not the first time teens have been charged with murder in such a case. In October, a Michigan judge denied bond for five teenagers accused of throwing a 6-pound rock off an overpass near Flint, killing Kenneth White Jr., 32.
Those teens face second-degree murder and other felony charges, and could be imprisoned for life. They have pleaded not guilty.