KENNER – Police say a 25-year-old man who died after what was at first described as an accidental shooting on Christmas Eve was actually shot by his girlfriend.
Twenty-nine-year-old Dominique Kendra Wix told police her boyfriend, Akoya Skeith, was taking a loaded handgun from his waistband around 12:30 a.m. on December 24 when the gun discharged and a bullet struck him in the abdomen.
Skeith later died of his wounds, and an autopsy performed on December 26 revealed that Skeith did not fire the weapon, according to the Kenner Police Department.
The bullet entered Skeith’s abdomen on the left side and exited his body on the right side approximately three inches higher than the entry wound before grazing his left arm, according to the autopsy.
There were no marks on Skeith’s body that would have indicated that a firearm was discharged at close range, and the location of the wounds ruled out a self-inflicted shot, according to the KPD.
Investigators spoke to Wix on December 27, and she admitted to lying to police on Christmas Eve about the shooting.
Wix gave two conflicting accounts to the detectives: first that Skeith made an aggressive move toward her while he had his gun tucked in his waistband and she retrieved her own gun and shot him, and then she said she and Skeith were not arguing at all and that the shooting was accidental.
Wix has been arrested and charged with Manslaughter. Her bond has not yet been set.
Kenner Police Chief Michael J. Glaser encourages anyone who may have information regarding Akoya Skeith or Dominique Kendra Wix, to call Detective Nick Engler at (504) 712-2410 or Detective Kathleen Fronczak at (504) 712-2316.