Collins randomly fired a handgun six times into a group of teenagers on Feb. 16, 2020, who gathered at the corner of Catalpa Drive and Sunnyview Avenue. The shots killed Qua’Lek Shelton, an award winning hurdler and student at Paul Laurence Dunbar Early College High School, and wounded a 16-year-old boy, according to the Montgomery County Prosecutor’s Office.
“He was small in stature but huge in confidence and determination,” Dunbar assistant track coach Alfred Powell told the Dayton Daily News following Shelton’s death.
He was an AAU national track champion and also played on Dunbar’s freshman football team as a wide receiver and cornerback.
“He had a gift and he knew he had a gift, and he talked in grandiose terms,” Powell said. “He would tell you he would run in the Olympics. He would tell you that he would run a certain time, and he was always correct. It was just exciting that we would be working with this young man, and this is lost and it’s devastating.”
Collins was in a vehicle when he fired the shots that struck the two teens, prosecutors said.
Shelton died of his injuries two days later.
Dayton police investigators determined Collins was the shooter.
The involuntary manslaughter count included a five-year firearm specification for shooting from a motor vehicle, and the felonious assault counts included three-year firearm specifications.
In addition to his 25-year sentence Collins was ordered to pay restitution and funeral expenses, the prosecutor’s office said.
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