A Florida teen was fatally shot while recording a TikTok video with her friend who was using a rifle as a prop, according to an arrest warrant obtained by HuffPost.
Aniyah Womack, 19, died after being dropped off at a Jacksonville hospital with a gunshot wound to her abdomen in late May, and for months, her family searched for answers around who she had been with and what happened before she was shot. Last week, 20-year-old Mariah Clayton was arrested on suspicion of manslaughter after police said they identified her as a suspect in the alleged accidental shooting.
According to the arrest warrant, Womack was hanging out at an apartment with Clayton and other friends in the early morning of May 24. One woman later told police that Clayton had called her and Womack into a bedroom where she was holding an “all-black rifle,” the document said.
The woman said she advised Clayton not to play with the gun, but she added that Womack began recording a TikTok in which Clayton would have “popped out” of a bathroom shower with the weapon, according to the arrest warrant.
Shortly after, a man went into the bathroom and attempted to take the rifle away from Clayton, the woman told police, per the warrant. Clayton allegedly pulled away as the man said “let me check something,” and the rifle discharged. The woman said that she believed Clayton was in control of the rifle, and that although the man had wanted to check its safety, he didn’t touch the firearm, the document said.
Clayton, however, told officers that the man was the one holding the rifle when it discharged, as he had allegedly wrapped his arms behind her and demonstrated how to hold the gun, according to the warrant.
In his interview with police, the man denied ever demonstrating to Clayton how to use the rifle, saying that he told Clayton the girls did not need to be playing with the gun and that it discharged as she put it down, the warrant said.
“Clayton, while attempting to film Tik-Tok videos, was inappropriately handling the rifle and was culpably negligent in her actions even after being told that she should not be playing with the rifle,” police concluded. “The culpably negligent actions of Ms. Clayton led her to be directly responsible for the death of Aniyah Womack.”
Police also spoke with a driver who helped drop Womack off at the hospital, with the driver saying he had arrived at the apartment to buy marijuana but was asked by the occupants to take Womack to the health facility. They allegedly told the driver that she had shot herself, and Clayton joined as a passenger in the car.
An unmarked police car followed them as they drove, and according to the arrest warrant, the driver and Clayton initially told the officer that they had found Womack on a sidewalk with a gunshot wound and decided to take her to the hospital.
They soon after said that the shooting had in fact occurred inside an apartment, the arrest warrant said.
Records show that Clayton is scheduled to appear in court on Oct. 30. It’s not clear if she has an attorney.
Until recently, Womack’s family had few answers about her death.
According to a fundraiser set up to offset funeral costs, she had last told her family that she was with friends and would return home soon.
“There are still many unknown factors and an ongoing investigation by local detectives,” the GoFundMe said. “While we don’t know all the details surrounding her death, what we do know was she was brought to the hospital by 2 anonymous people with a gunshot wound.”
Since then, her relatives said they’ve connected with other families affected by gun violence.
“We just want justice. Whatever justice looks like,” Womack’s cousin Autumn Redding told News4JAX.
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