The state's attorney's office says a 20-year-old employee of Westfield shopping center in Meriden who is accused of stabbing and killing a teen outside of a mall in September should not be charged.
According to NBC30 in Connecticut, investigators for the state's attorney's office have determined that the employee, who has not been named, was acting in self-defense when he was attacked by 15-year-old Deandre Felton and DeShawn Jones, 13. Felton died and Jones was injured in the attack. Background a news release issued in the fall, Meriden police explained how the investigation points to both Felton and the other teenager as the aggressors in the stabbing incident.
The teens were hanging out with a group of friends at the Westfield Shopping Town Plaza in Meriden Square on Lewis Street just before the encounter
When the mall closed, the group gathered in the parking lot, at which point Felton and the 13-year-old, whom the witnesses claimed were both high, made statements that they wanted to “look for trouble” and ”beat someone up,” the news release said.”
During a walk through the pedestrian access gate at a Midstate Medical Center parking lot, Felton and the other teen broke away from the group and ran toward a man who was walking east on Kensington Avenue.
Police said the two teens jumped the man and, moments later, Felton and the 13-year-old teen ran back to the group at which point they collapsed from stab wounds. The witnesses told police they “didn’t know this attack was going to happen.”
It was at this point that Meriden police got a call from an anonymous female caller reporting that two teens were stabbed on Kensington Avenue.
