In the early morning hours of October 9, 2025, a gathering of friends at a home on Lauren Kay Court in Lawrenceville, Georgia, turned tragic. Inside, 19-year-old Nina Ramirez was with her boyfriend, Sebastian Prestridge, also 19, and a group of friends during a sleepover. The group was reportedly passing around a handgun that belonged to a friend, believing it to be unloaded.
The playful atmosphere shattered when the gun discharged while in Prestridge's hands, striking Ramirez in the
head. Lawrenceville police were called to the scene around 1:20 a.m. and found Ramirez in an upstairs bedroom with a gunshot wound. Emergency medical personnel pronounced her dead at the scene. Prestridge remained at the home and cooperated with the ensuing investigation.
Following the incident, Sebastian Prestridge was arrested and charged with involuntary manslaughter. Initially, Nina Ramirez's mother, Maria Carmen Ramirez, expressed that she believed the shooting was a tragic accident, stating that Prestridge loved her daughter. However, by November 2025, her perspective had changed. After learning more details about the investigation, including that the gun was allegedly put in her daughter's mouth, she began to question the initial narrative and called for a new investigation into her daughter's death. A judge granted bond to Prestridge in November 2025, a decision that the victim's mother opposed. The Gwinnett County District Attorney's office was set to review the case for prosecution.
