Darius Plummer

Darius Plummer was known by his family as an outgoing and funny teenager who was always clowning and joking around. His cousin, Derrick Ambrose, remembered him as a beloved kid he had known since he was a baby. A student who had attended Broadmoor High School before transferring to a school in Zachary, Darius lived in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on North Harrells Ferry Road. On the morning of March 13, 2017, his 16th birthday, Darius left home to celebrate with his best friend, looking forward to a day of celebration.

The celebration turned to tragedy just before 1 p.m. that day. Darius was at his friend's apartment in the 4700 block of Southpark Drive, near Airline Highway, when he was shot. According to family members of the apartment's resident, they heard a single gunshot and rushed into the room to find Darius on the floor with a gunshot wound to the head. The only other person in the room at the time was his friend's father, 49-year-old Octavio Bringas-Posados. Emergency responders rushed Darius to a nearby hospital, but he did not survive his injuries.

When East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's deputies arrived at the apartment complex, Bringas-Posados had already fled the scene. Investigators quickly identified him as the suspect. Shortly after the shooting, Bringas-Posados reportedly called a relative, admitting he had been playing with a gun when it accidentally discharged and struck Darius. He also told the relative he was not coming back and would not talk to the police. An alert was issued, and the Louisiana State Police Fugitive Apprehension Task Force located his vehicle on Interstate 10 in Lake Charles. He was arrested without incident less than three hours after the shooting, allegedly while attempting to flee the country.

Bringas-Posados, an undocumented person who had been previously deported to Mexico in 2012 after a drug arrest, was initially charged with second-degree murder. He told detectives that he had mistakenly fired the gun while playing with it. Darius's family was left reeling, questioning why a grown man would be playing with a firearm around a child. "It's just pure ignorance, carelessness," said Trina Plummer, Darius's mother. His cousin Derrick Ambrose added, "Why would a grown man be playing with a gun around a kid anyway? Why? For what?"

In addition to the state murder charge, Bringas-Posados faced federal charges for illegally re-entering the United States and being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm. In June 2017, he pleaded guilty to the federal charges and was later sentenced to two years in federal prison. In state court, the charge was later reduced from second-degree murder to negligent homicide, to which he initially pleaded not guilty in August 2017.

In March 2018, the case reached its conclusion in state court. Octavio Bringas-Posados pleaded guilty to negligent homicide in the death of Darius Plummer. He was sentenced to five years at hard labor with the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections. He was given credit for time already served. This sentence ran concurrently with the two-year federal sentence he was already serving for the gun and immigration violations. Through an interpreter in federal court, Bringas-Posados had previously asked for forgiveness and expressed remorse, though Darius’s mother questioned his sincerity, noting that he had fled the scene immediately after the shooting.