All but one charge dropped against security guard in fatal shooting
FLINT, MI October 7 2021– Multiple counts, including a charge of involuntary manslaughter, have been dropped against a man charged in a February 2020 shooting at The Loft in downtown Flint that resulted in a man’s death.
At a Monday, Oct. 4 preliminary examination for Allyne M. Hall, of Flint, Genesee County District Court Judge Christopher R. Odette dropped multiple charges including involuntary manslaughter, tampering with evidence, and two counts of felony firearm.
Hall, who was bound over to Genesee County Circuit Court, now faces a single count of carrying a concealed weapon.
He was originally charged with manslaughter after the shooting death of Dequintez L. Watkins, 28, who was shot by Hall during the early morning hours Saturday, Feb. 29, 2020 after a fight broke out in The Loft, a popular nightclub in downtown Flint.
Watkins was celebrating his birthday when a fight started between two females, Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton has said. When the security guard moved to intervene, Hall was “jumped” by members of the crowd.
As Hall tried to extricate himself from the situation, he pulled out a gun and fired it into the air.
“Anytime you have a barroom altercation it’s very difficult to sort it out short of getting into the courtroom and hearing from actual witnesses under oath,” Leyton told MLive-The Flint Journal on Tuesday, Oct. 5. “That all played in the original decision to charge the man, but I have no objection to Judge Odette’s decision in this case.”
Leyton said Hall was in possession of an unlicensed firearm at the time of the shooting.
Hall’s attorney, Trachelle C. Young, said her client should never have been charged with the four counts Odette dropped.
“It was pretty clear from the start that Mr. Hall acted in self-defense,” Young said.
Hall spent more than a year on house arrest as his court date was postponed due to COVID-19 restrictions in the court, the attorney said.
Now, his tether is being removed and he is out on bond, Young said.
“The testimony made it very clear he was being assaulted by many men and women,” Young said. “He thought he was going to die so he just randomly pulled the trigger in the air.”
Hall and his family are relieved to see the charges dropped, Young said.
His next court date has not yet been scheduled.
