Savannah teen slain in shootout over apparent turf dispute

<p>An argument between two teenagers erupted into a shootout that left a 15-year-old boy slain by a bullet after he fired a shotgun at his accused killer.</p><p>Police said the shooting appeared to have resulted from territorial feuding between the teens' west Savannah neighborhoods. Officers beefed up patrols at a nearby high-school the day after the shooting.</p><p>"We don't know what the feud was, but it had been going on for a while," said Maj. James Barnwell, commander of criminal investigations for Savannah-Chatham County police.</p><p>Police found Tyrell Butts, shot once in the lower back and showing no pulse, Tuesday night. On Wednesday, officers arrested 18-year-old Juan Russell Williams and charged him with murder in the shooting.</p><p>Both teenagers had been students at nearby Beach High School, where police dispatched 15 officers after school ended Wednesday to quell any chance of more violence. One student was found carrying a revolver and arrested.</p><p>"Typically when you have youth violence, there are lots of emotions and tensions," police spokesman Sgt. Mike Wilson said Thursday. "The officers went there in anticipation that there could be potential problems."</p><p>Butts was the Savannah area's sixth homicide victim this year. The first, 19-year-old Jennifer Ross, prompted a public outcry for police to crack down on crime after Ross was fatally shot Christmas Eve hours after attending her debutante ball. She died from her wound New Year's Day.</p><p>Police say Butts was walking with a friend through the westside Cann Park neighborhood Tuesday when Williams and some of his friends accosted them.</p><p>"What the (expletive) are you doing over here," Williams asked Butts, according to a police report.</p><p>After a brief argument, Butts pulled out a shotgun and fired at Williams, grazing his hand. Butts then tried to run, police said, and Williams shot at him three times with a revolver.</p><p>Police arrived to find Butts with a single gunshot wound to the back. He had no pulse and was pronounced dead at a local hospital.</p><p>Charlene Gibbons, president of the Cann Park Neighborhood Association, noted it was the second slaying in her neighborhood since November, when construction worker Quentin Clark was fatally shot as he left his aunt's house.</p><p>"Two young lives lost by gunfire within six months is troubling," Gibbons said. "It is too easy for these young people to get ahold of guns."</p><p>___</p><p>HASH(0x1cdc438)</p>