WICHITA, Kan. (KWCH/Gray News) – A mother admitted to fatally shooting her son, according to court documents.
Tesha Jenkins is charged with second-degree murder in the death of her son 16-year-old Robert Florence.
Jenkins told police Robert was a “bad kid” who was into drugs and wouldn’t go to school. She said she accidentally shot Robert after he pulled a gun out of her backpack.
On Oct. 9, Wichita Police responded to a shooting call at Jenkins’ apartment. They arrived to find Robert lying face down in the living room with a single gunshot wound to the head.
Police noted that Jenkins was “emotionally distraught” and “fell to the ground and rolled around in distress” when police went to place her in handcuffs. She then cried out, “I shot my baby.“
Officers noticed blood on Jenkins’ hands, the waist area of her shirt and her face.
Jenkins said, “she kissed her baby.” She also told officers to “just kill her,” according to the affadavit.
Jenkins said Robert was supposed to go to school that day, but he didn’t want to. When his two oldest brothers left the apartment, she called the school to let them know Robert would not be in for the day.
While at home, Jenkins said Robert began nagging her and said he was going to a neighbor downstairs to get some “weed.” Jenkins said Robert begged to use her phone, but she refused.
Robert asked if he could call his older brother who had left for school earlier in the day and “tell him to ask their father for money.”
Jenkins allowed him to use the phone for that call. After that, Jenkins said Robert started “pulling down the curtains and tearing up bits of paper and throwing them on the floor” to antagonize her.
Jenkins said she laid on her mattress in the living area and started texting a friend. She said Robert then took a Ruger 9mm handgun out of her backpack.
“Robert made no threats with the gun and did not point it at Jenkins,” the affidavit reads. “Jenkins lunged forward and grabbed the handgun and backpack from Robert.”
Jenkins told police she held the gun, pointed it at Robert and asked if he wanted to die.
“Jenkins stated the handgun ‘went off’ and she noticed Robert fall forward and that’s when she realized she had shot him,” the affidavit reads.
Jenkins told police she believed the handgun was empty. She said she removed all of the live rounds. She then stated that she may have placed two live rounds into the gun a couple of weeks before when she had to walk home from work.
Later, Jenkins admitted that when she took the gun from Robert she “racked the slide back,” causing the handgun to change the next round from the magazine.
“Jenkins denied intending to shoot Robert but admitted that she may have intended to discharge the handgun with the intent to scare Robert,” the affidavit states.
When officers found the handgun in the apartment, there was a live round in the chamber and two live rounds in the magazine.
Jenkins said she had the gun for about seven years.
Wichita Police interviewed Robert’s father and his girlfriend who told them Jenkins had pulled a gun on both of them in March after Robert had called his mother following an argument with his dad.
Wichita police reviewed surveillance video from the morning of Oct. 9. From 7:30 a.m. to 7:50 a.m., Robert‘s brothers could be seen leaving the apartment, getting gas and arriving at school.
A neighbor’s doorbell camera captured Jenkins coming out of the apartment at 8:13 a.m. on the phone and crying. About four minutes later, paramedics arrived on the scene.
Robert was taken to the hospital after the shooting in critical condition. He died two days later.
Jenkins remains in the Sedgwick County Jail on a $1.2 million bond.
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