Delray Beach Man Accidentally Shoots and Kills His Teenage Cousin

DELRAY BEACH-- Twenty-year-old David Duritsa has been charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child after shooting and killing his 17-year-old cousin, James Williams, Monday night.

Duritsa turned himself in to police Tuesday morning. The young men were inside the victim's home on Southwest 14th Avenue in Delray Beach when Duritsa fired the the gun. 

Duritsa's mother says he called her shortly after the shooting and said "mommy I found a gun and I was playing around with it, and it went off." Eleanor Abraham said at that point "he didn't know if he had shot him in the shoulder or the head, and he said he was sorry and he just cried."

According to the police report, Duritsa didn't think the gun was loaded when he picked it up and pointed it at his cousin, who was sitting on a couch watching television. The gun's magazine had been removed, but police say a bullet was still in the chamber. Family and friends are calling the shooting a tragic accident.

"He always had a smile on his face," said Decarla Balam, Williams' mother. "When I went to the hospital and I saw him he looked like he was at peace, and every time I think about him on that hospital bed, it just looked like he was asleep, and now I know he's not coming back home to me no more, and it makes me hurt bad."

Balam's only message to others, "stop playing with guns, and stop trying to be a thug because this can happen to anybody's child! It just so happened it was my child!"

Williams' funeral is scheduled for Tuesday, December 1. It will be held at the Lake Ida Church of Christ in Delray Beach around 2 p.m.

A Fund has been set up in Williams' name at Bank Atlantic to help pay for funeral costs.