Mitchell man accused of manslaughter following Saturday shooting

One man is dead and another is accused of manslaughter following a Saturday night shooting in Mitchell.

William Dean Davis, 21, of Mitchell, is accused of first-degree manslaughter in the death of a 19-year-old man. Mitchell police did not immediately release the victim’s name. Police said Davis is believed to have recklessly discharged a firearm, resulting in the younger man’s death.

Davis has been charged with manslaughter in the first degree, a Class C felony punishable by a maximum sentence of life in prison and a $50,000 fine. He is being held at the Davison County Jail on a $100,000 cash bond.

Officers were dispatched to 512 S. Duff St., a home that Davis rented with a family member, at 9:20 p.m. Saturday after a caller reported a shooting.

Police secured the scene, conducted an investigation and determined that Davis intentionally pulled the trigger on a double-barreled shotgun but had not intend- ed to kill the victim, according to Mitchell Detective Lt. Don Everson.

“He thought it was unloaded,” Everson said Sunday evening. “He was just messing around and not aiming at anyone intentionally.”

But the shotgun was loaded, the detective said, and the victim received blasts from both barrels of the weapon.

Everson said that, through interviews with witnesses at the scene and with Davis himself, police determined his actions were “more than an accident.” Everson said Davis had been drinking at the house, where a group of people had gathered.

Everson said there is no reason to believe the victim and Davis were involved in an altercation at the time of the shooting. He said Davis and the victim knew each other but he didn’t believe they were close friends.

The victim was pronounced dead at the scene just hours before his 20th birthday. Police were not disclosing his name to allow family members to learn the news from each other and not through the media, Everson said.

This is the first fatal shooting in Mitchell since 2007. That incident was somewhat similar to Saturday’s. In the 2007 incident, a man who had been drinking shot his roommate in the knee with a rifle, and the roommate bled to death.

Saturday night’s fatal shooting was investigated by the Mitchell Police Division and the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation.

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