12-year-old boy shot at Savannah funeral dies. Now, a 15-year-old faces charges

A 15-year-old boy was arrested Sunday morning in the shooting of a 12-year-old at a Savannah funeral home the day before, according to a news release from Savannah Police.

The younger boy, identified as John Cooksey Jr. in a news release from the Savannah Police Department, originally was hospitalized in critical condition at Memorial University Medical Center.

He died on Monday night, reported WSAV, just a short time after hundreds of people gathered for a rally to pray and offer anti-violence messages.

Deion Micah Pinckney, 15, faces a charge of murder in relation to Cooksey’s death. He previously had been charged with two counts of aggravated assault and single counts of aggravated battery and possession of a firearm by a minor.

The funeral on Saturday afternoon at Bonaventure Funeral Home was for Rick Boyd, 20, who was shot and killed after confronting police with what turned out to be a BB air gun on Jan. 23, WTOC reported. Boyd at the time was a suspect in the shooting death of Balil Whitfield on Jan. 21.

Detectives do not believe the shooting at the funeral home was in retaliation for Whitfield’s death, said a separate police news release.

The Rev. Arleen Fuller said she had just finished praying for peace at Boyd’s funeral when she heard gunshots, the Savannah Morning News reported.

“I was doing the eulogy and was talking about the young people about the crime and the violence,” Fuller told the newspaper. “And I was asking them to stop and to not do retaliation. ... Next thing you know we heard ‘Pop, pop, pop.’ ”

Anyone with information about the shooting may call Savannah Police at 912-525-3124 or CrimeStoppers at 912-234-2020.

This story was originally published February 5, 2018 at 10:17 AM with the headline "12-year-old boy shot at Savannah funeral dies. Now, a 15-year-old faces charges."