Teenager Arrested In Connection With Fatal Shooting Of Montco Teens

POTTSTOWN, PA — In what authorities say might have been a drug deal turned sour, a Montgomery County teenager is in custody and charged with first-degree murder and other counts in connection with the fatal shootings of two teen boys in Pottstown Borough earlier this week.

The Montgomery County District Attorney's Office announced that it has arrested Dominic Carboni, 17, of Schwenksville, Montgomery County, in connection with the Monday killings of 17-year-old Skyler Fox and 18-year-old Brandon Bacote-Byer.

Related: Teen Victims Identified In Montco Double Homicide

The two teenagers were found dead Monday just after 11:30 p.m. after officers responded to the area of Fourth and Johnson Streets in Pottstown.

Multiple calls about gunshots came in to 911 dispatchers, after which authorities discovered the two boys lying dead at the scene next to Fox's vehicle.

The DA's Office has shed some light on what might have occurred leading up to the killings.

Investigators say they discovered that Carboni was scheduled to meet Fox on Monday night to purchase marijuana, the plan uncovered by analyzing text messaging data that showed Fox and Carboni had communicated with one another beginning at just after 3 p.m. that afternoon.

The last message to come through was at 11:22 p.m., just 11 minutes before the double homicide, the DA's Office said.

Prosecutors said that at 11:45 p.m., just minutes following the shooting, Carboni deleted his messaging history with Fox.

Video surveillance recovered by detectives showed a maroon-colored Ford pick-up truck fleeing the area of the killings after the homicide, and that the truck appeared to be the same color and make and model as a Ford F-150 owned by Carboni's father, which the younger Carboni had been seen driving earlier in the evening, according to the DA's Office.

"This is another senseless killing of two teenagers over drugs, committed by a 17-year-old defendant who, for a variety of reasons, could not legally possess a gun," District Attorney Kevin Steele said in a statement. "We are working diligently to go after people who buy guns and sell them to kids, sell them to convicted felons and sell them to others who can't legally buy their own guns."

At the scene of the killings, investigators found numerous fired cartridge casings, one projectile and a Taurus G3 9mm handgun with a filed serial number, the DA's Office stated.

Police did not recover a backpack at the scene, but prosecutors said that witnesses told officers that they observed Fox with a backpack on his shoulder as he crawled away from his vehicle after being shot, and that minutes later the backpack appeared to have been gone and Fox was then no longer moving.

Carboni was charged with two counts of first-degree homicide, second-degree homicide, third-degree homicide and robbery.

He was sent to the Montgomery County Juvenile Detention Center following his arraignment since bail is not afforded to first-degree murder defendants in Pennsylvania.

Carboni is scheduled to appear before Magisterial District Court Judge Scott T. Palladino on Nov. 3 at 11 a.m. for a preliminary hearing.