Printess Allen Winston IV, a 16-year-old Black/African American male from Fairmont, West Virginia, was a rising junior at Fairmont Senior High School when a gathering inside a Cleveland Avenue apartment ended in a fatal shooting. Winston had grown up in Fairmont and was active in sports, including basketball, and his family said he hoped eventually to own a custom automotive shop.
He had already begun learning that business alongside his father and brother at the family’s Winston Wheels and Tires operation. His obituary also described his enjoyment of music, fishing, archery, and spending time with relatives and friends.
The shooting occurred on Sunday, June 12, 2016, at an apartment complex on Cleveland Avenue in Fairmont. According to Fairmont police accounts reported at the time, Winston was with another teenager when a handgun was being handled or played with. Police concluded that the shooting was accidental: the weapon discharged and the bullet struck Winston. He was rushed to Fairmont Regional Medical Center, but he did not survive. Funeral records place his death in the early morning hours of Monday, June 13.
Investigators focused on another teenager who was present when the gun fired. Contemporary reports described that person only as another 16-year-old and did not publicly identify the juvenile by name. Police said the teenager had been playing with the handgun when it discharged, rather than describing the shooting as an intentional attack. In the days immediately after Winston’s death, authorities said charges were pending, and later reporting stated that the juvenile could face an involuntary manslaughter charge. The wording was significant: the publicly available reporting described involuntary manslaughter as a possible charge rather than confirming that the teenager had been convicted or even publicly announcing a completed prosecution.
The investigation also led to the arrest of an adult connected to the apartment where the shooting occurred. On June 20, 2016, authorities arrested Amy Jones, then 39, and charged her with one count of child neglect resulting in death. Investigators alleged that the fatal incident occurred inside Jones’s home while the two teenagers were playing with the firearm. Jones was arraigned on the charge and subsequently released after bond was set at $25,000. The reporting did not accuse Jones of pulling the trigger; her criminal charge concerned the circumstances that allegedly allowed the juveniles and the firearm to come together inside the residence.
The distinction between the two people scrutinized by investigators remained important. The unnamed juvenile was described as the person actually handling the handgun when it discharged, while Jones was the adult arrested on the neglect allegation arising from the shooting occurring in her home. Police treated Winston’s death as an accidental shooting rather than an intentional homicide, but the accidental finding did not prevent authorities from examining whether criminal responsibility existed for the handling and accessibility of the weapon.
Publicly accessible reporting located for the case confirms Jones’s arrest, the child-neglect-resulting-in-death charge, her arraignment and release on bond, and the possibility that the juvenile shooter could face involuntary manslaughter. It does not establish through reliable later reporting that the juvenile was ultimately tried or convicted, nor does the available coverage located here document a final trial verdict or sentence for Jones. Because the suspected shooter was a juvenile, the contemporary reports withheld the teenager’s identity, and the publicly reported trail ends without a clearly documented conviction or sentencing outcome.
Winston’s death left behind a family that described him as ambitious, athletic and closely connected to those around him. He had been looking toward another school year at Fairmont Senior and toward a future working with automobiles when the mishandling of a handgun abruptly ended those plans. What began as teenagers handling a firearm inside a Fairmont apartment became a fatal incident, an adult arrest and the prospect of juvenile manslaughter proceedings, while the surviving public record leaves the eventual disposition of those possible juvenile charges and the final outcome of Jones’s case unclear.
