On the morning of July 25, 2019, 15-year-old Naimah Bell of Atlantic City was found in a recently vacated apartment on the 100 block of South Massachusetts Avenue with a fatal gunshot wound to the head. Police were called at 4:17 a.m. The group present that night numbered six people, mostly teenagers, and investigators say they had been hanging out and playing with a handgun; the shooting has been described as a tragic misadventure rather than a malicious act.

Naimah was a freshman at Pleasantville High School and remembered by friends as a bright, funny student who could light up a room. An 18-year-old, Nahquil Lovest of Pleasantville, was arrested the following day and initially charged with murder. Lovest acknowledged handling the gun, saying he believed he had unloaded it and was clicking it when it discharged; witnesses reported he was crying and said he didn’t mean for it to happen.

Lovest later pleaded guilty to a downgraded charge of first-degree aggravated manslaughter and received a 10-year state prison sentence with a requirement to serve at least 85 percent before parole eligibility. Does anyone have information about who else was with Naimah that night or about the apartment where this occurred?