Investigators linked the weapon to Jaden Law’s fatal shooting before charging another teenager with manslaughter two months later.

BRANDON, Fla. — A firearm pulled from a retention pond the day after 15-year-old Jaden Law was found fatally shot inside a sporting goods store became a central piece of evidence in a two-month investigation that ended with authorities charging 16-year-old Ahmad Webb with manslaughter with a weapon.

The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office said Webb and Law were among three juveniles who entered Dick’s House of Sport at the Brandon Exchange on July 10 and went into a fitting-room area together. An employee called 911 at 4:28 p.m. to report a shooting, and deputies reached the store within four minutes. They found Law dead in a fitting room. The medical examiner later determined that he died from a single gunshot wound and classified his death as a homicide. Authorities have not publicly explained what happened inside the room in the moments before the gun was fired.

The first hours of the investigation produced surveillance video and two detained juveniles, but no publicly announced arrest in Law’s death. The sheriff’s office said employees reported hearing a gunshot and surveillance footage then showed two people leaving the store and running into the parking lot. Deputies detained two people believed to be involved within minutes of the initial call. Investigators later identified Webb as one of the three juveniles who had entered the fitting-room area with Law. Authorities have not publicly identified the third juvenile.

The investigation moved outside the shopping center the next day. On July 11, members of the sheriff’s office dive team searched a retention pond south of the Brandon Exchange and recovered a firearm. Laboratory and ballistic testing later determined that the recovered gun was the weapon used in the shooting, the sheriff’s office said. Officials have not publicly detailed in the materials released so far exactly how investigators concluded the firearm was connected to Webb, nor have they said who originally brought the weapon to the store. The sheriff’s office has also not released a public explanation of how the gun came to be in the pond.

Those unanswered questions are important because surveillance footage, the firearm and the medical examiner’s findings describe important parts of the case without providing a complete public account of the shooting itself. Authorities have said Webb was seen leaving the fitting-room area shortly after employees reported hearing the shot. They have not said whether the gunfire followed an argument, handling of the firearm or some other event, and they have not announced a motive. Law&Crime reported in September that a probable cause affidavit containing additional details was not immediately available at the time of its report.

For Law’s family, the lack of an immediate explanation was a central part of the weeks after his death. His father, Samuel Law, told Tampa Bay 28 in July that his son regularly spent time at the shopping center with friends, making the visit itself unremarkable. He said he had not known his son had access to a gun or was spending time with people who did. At that stage of the investigation, before the manslaughter charge was announced, Samuel Law questioned why the two people who had been with his son left rather than seeking help after the shooting.

The father’s account provided a personal view of a case that officials initially described only as a death investigation. He remembered Jaden as a fun-loving and kindhearted teenager and said the loss affected the entire family. Funeral-home material later described the teenager in similarly warm terms, emphasizing his kindness and the impact he had on people close to him. Those family descriptions stand apart from the investigative record: They explain who Law was to relatives and friends while authorities continue trying to establish what happened during the brief period inside the fitting room.

The case changed on Sept. 14, when the State Attorney’s Office approved a manslaughter charge following what the sheriff’s office described as an extensive investigation. Authorities then announced that Webb had been arrested and charged with manslaughter with a weapon in connection with Law’s death. The charge represents an accusation, not a finding of guilt. The publicly released sheriff’s office account does not say that investigators believe the shooting was intentional, and officials have not publicly disclosed the circumstances that led prosecutors to approve manslaughter rather than another homicide charge.

Sheriff Chad Chronister said after the charge was announced that the investigation had continued throughout the two months following Law’s death. He credited detectives with working to establish the facts and said the charge was the result of their continued effort. The sheriff’s office described the case as ongoing, meaning the Sept. 14 arrest did not necessarily mark the end of investigative work. Officials have said additional updates would be released through the agency’s Public Affairs Office when available.

The speed of the initial police response contrasts with the much longer process required to announce a criminal charge. The 911 call came at 4:28 p.m.; deputies were at the store about four minutes later, and two people believed to have been involved were detained roughly two minutes after that, according to the sheriff’s office. Yet investigators spent about two more months reviewing evidence before prosecutors approved the manslaughter charge. Publicly described evidence from that period includes the surveillance footage, the recovered firearm, ballistic testing and the medical examiner’s determination that Law’s death was a homicide.

The shooting also unfolded in a busy public setting. Dick’s House of Sport is located at the Brandon Exchange, a shopping center east of Tampa. The sheriff’s office said at least 33 deputies, including K-9 personnel, responded on July 10. Despite the investigation inside the store, the larger shopping center remained open and continued normal operations through its regular closing time. Chief Deputy Joseph Maurer said afterward that violence in a place where families gather was particularly concerning, while stressing that deputies had quickly secured the scene.

What remains publicly unresolved is narrower but significant: Authorities have not said what prompted the gunshot, who brought the firearm into the fitting room or precisely how responsibility for the shooting was established beyond the evidence summarized in public statements. No later public account located in reporting through Oct. 21 provided those missing details. Webb remains accused of manslaughter with a weapon, and the sheriff’s office has continued to describe the case as an ongoing investigation.

Author note: Last updated October 21, 2026.