Ybor City shooting: Teen suspect appears to apologize for killing 20-year-old in police interview

Ybor shooting suspect in court

Lloyd Sowers reports

TAMPA, Fla. - It was a stunning moment in a Tampa courtroom on Tuesday during the hearing for the 14-year-old accused of murder in the Ybor City mass shooting from October.

Prosecutors said a recording of an interview with the suspect and investigators with the Tampa Police Department appeared to show Kayden Abney, 14, apologizing for killing Harrison Boonstoppel, 20, in the deadly shooting.

Boonstoppel was an innocent bystander when a gunfight broke out between two rival groups.

The recorded interview happened last week. On the recording, a Tampa police detective told Abney that Boonstoppel’s parents aren’t doing well following their son’s death.

The detective asked Abney if he wanted the detective to tell the parents anything.

Abney replied, "I apologize for shooting the gun that killed Harrison."

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Fourteen-year-old Kayden Abney was in trouble with the law even before he allegedly brought a gun into the late-night crowd in Ybor City and fired a lethal shot.

The 14 year-old’s attorney suggested that detectives tricked Abney into making the apology. The apology came more than an hour into that police interview.

His attorney also said that Abney has mental illness and is taking medication for it.

Prosecutors also showed surveillance and cell phone video, which showed Abney with other young men on 7th Avenue in Ybor City at the time of the shooting. Prosecutors said Abney fired a 9mm handgun in retaliation for a member of another group shooting one of Abney’s friends.

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Prosecutors said ballistics evidence shows Boonstoppel was killed by the gun Abney fired.

In a summation of the evidence presented, Hillsborough Assistant State Attorney Justin Diaz said, "What happens in Ybor is two groups that weren’t expecting to run into each other clash in the middle of the street."

Circuit Judge Robin Fuson ordered Abney to be held without bond until his trial. Fuson also referenced Abney’s numerous juvenile offenses prior to the Ybor City shooting.

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"Based on his past behavior of completely ignoring every single time he was arrested and charged with a dangerous offense, he went out and committed another one, and we can guarantee that he won’t do it again, that these two gangs meet up again and get involved in another shootout," Fuson told the courtroom.