Texas teen charged with murder after luring victims through Grindr
Darmarion Degrate is accused of shooting at least two men, killing one, after meeting them through Grindr
A 17-year-old has been arrested in Waco, Texas, after he allegedly lethally shot a man and wounded two others after meeting them through the gay dating app Grindr.
Damarion Degrate was first arrested in late August, after three men were shot in Waco on Aug. 17 in separate incidents. One of those men, Jonathan Breeding, 23, later died, the Waco Tribune-Herald reports.
Degrate was initially arrested for one of the nonfatal shootings, but has now been charged with murder over Breeding’s death, Waco Police Department said in a press release.
Police accused Degrate of communicating with the victims through Grindr, where he “made plans to meet up with them. After meeting up with the victims, Degrate shot all three.”
According to an affidavit, Degrate conversed with his first victim on the app late on August 16 and arranged for his victim to pick him up from his home and drive him to a separate location. He then got out of the car under the pretense of stopping to buy drugs.
The affidavit states that “after being gone for several minutes, the defendant [Degrate] returned to the vehicle where the victim was waiting, opened the passenger door and shot the victim in the chest at point blank range.” The victim was able to leave the scene, eventually stopping at a nearby gas station, where police were called.
Degrate allegedly then spoke to Breeding through Grindr and met him a couple of hours after the first shooting, in the early hours of Aug. 17. Breeding was found by police after crashing his car into a pole.
A third man was found with a gunshot wound later that morning, and Degrate is the primary suspect in that shooting, police said.
Degrate’s arrest comes after a number of crimes involving Grindr have made headlines in recent months.
Last month, a Bronx man was accused of hacking his Grindr date to death with a machete, after a roommate allegedly found him standing over a bloody body holding the murder weapon.
In June, a Louisiana student was left in critical condition after he was stabbed in the neck by a man he met through Grindr who reportedly admired serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer.
In May, a New York man was pistol-whipped and robbed at gunpoint after arranging to meet a man through Grindr.
And in March, a British man was accused of stabbing a gay teenager more than 100 times after meeting one another through Grindr.
Related:
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