Tuscaloosa VCU Makes Arrest in 2020 Homicide of Teen Victim

Police in Tuscaloosa County have made an arrest more than 4 years after a teenager was fatally shot now that the details of the case have come to light.

Captain Jack Kennedy said the 17-year-old victim died after arriving at DCH Regional Medical Center with a gunshot wound on August 12th, 2020.

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Because the victim was a minor, the VCU has not publicly released their identity and declined to do so Friday now that the case is closed.

Kennedy said the reason the arrest took this long is that the shooting occurred at a residence with multiple witnesses inside, but they failed to cooperate with police and a clear understanding of the chain of events that led to the shooting was never established.

"Without a clear course of events leading to the shooting, no charges were able to be brought," Kennedy said Friday. "But VCU investigators have continued to work on this case, and late last year were able to establish the probable course of events during the shooting. The case in its entirety was presented to a grand jury, which indicted Antonie Dewayne Bankhead, Jr, age 22 for Manslaughter."

The young man was arrested late Thursday night and charged with Manslaughter. He was placed in the Tuscaloosa County Jail, where his bond is set at $20,000.

"No homicide investigation conducted by the Violent Crimes Unit is ever closed unless the perpetrator has been identified and /or charged," Kennedy said.  "The investigators who continued to work on this case for that last 4 years are to be commended."

The arrest closes one of the only unsolved homicide cases the VCU has investigated in the last decade.

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