Affidavit: Fort Worth woman charged with killing boyfriend changed story

The sister of a Fort Worth man fatally shot last week by his girlfriend who claimed it was an accident, told investigators that she was on the phone with her brother when he was shot and that she had heard the couple arguing.

Sheerika Manning told homicide Detective Jeremy Rhoden that she had been talking to her brother, Eric Manning, on the telephone when she heard a female voice — whom she believed to be Amelia Arroyo — arguing with her brother, followed by a single gunshot.

“You shot me,” Sheerika Manning said she heard her 26-year-old brother exclaim, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.

Sheerika Manning told she police she called her mother, who in turned called 911, telling dispatchers she believed her son had been shot in the 5700 block of Whittlesey Road.

Six minutes later, a second 911 call was received by Arroyo, who told dispatchers she had accidentally shot someone, the affidavit states.

Arroyo was formally charged Monday with murder in the case. She remains held in the Tarrant County Jail with bail set at $500,000 in the case.

When police responded to the Whittlesey home, they found Manning dead from a gunshot wound to the chest outside the home’s backdoor and both Arroyo and Sheerika Manning on scene.

Questioned by investigators, Arroyo told police that she had been alone in the house, cleaning the kitchen, while Eric Manning was outside with a friend.

She said she had picked up Manning’s gun, which had been lying on a kitchen counter, to put it away in a cabinet when Manning walked inside, startling her, “which caused her to point the gun at him and that the gun accidentally went off,” the affidavit, written by homicide Detective M.E. Anderson, states.

Arroyo told Anderson she then followed Manning outside, where he laid down on the ground, and she called 911.

The affidavit states Arroyo later changed her story, however, saying the gun had accidentally went off after she pointed it at Manning and said, “B--tch back off.” She later gave another version, claiming Manning grabbed her hand, causing the gun to discharge, the affidavit states.

In a jail interview, Arroyo told a CBS 11 New reporter that Manning was hitting her during a dispute turned physical alteration when she reached for the gun to hit him in defense. While doing so, she said the gun went off and struck him in the chest.

“I want everybody to know that I didn’t try to kill him. I loved him… I didn’t want to kill him,” she told the news station.

Detectives learned that Arroyo and Manning’s three children were inside the house when the shooting occurred but were dropped off by Arroya at her sister’s home before she returned and called 911, the affidavit states.

This story was originally published January 27, 2016 at 3:56 PM with the headline "Affidavit: Fort Worth woman charged with killing boyfriend changed story."