A 16-year-old Providence boy said to be a member of the Hanover Boyz street gang was ordered detained in the murder of 15-year-old William Parsons outside the Providence Career and Technical Academy. The boy is charged with murder, assault with a deadly weapon and multiple felony gun offenses.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A 16-year-old Providence boy said to be a member of the Hanover Boyz street gang was ordered detained in the murder on Wednesday of 15-year-old William Parsons outside the Providence Career and Technical Academy.

The boy is charged with murder, assault with a deadly weapon and multiple felony gun offenses.

The boy, who is not identified because he is a juvenile, on Friday was wheeled into Family Court Judge Stephen Capineri's courtroom in a wheelchair, because he is still recovering from a bullet wound in his thigh.

Authorities said the boy shot himself as he ran away after shooting Parsons in the face on Wednesday afternoon.

Prosecutors said the suspect was arguing with three other teenagers outside the school around 2 o'clock on Wednesday when he motioned them to the side of the building. Surveillance cameras caught the scene of the teenager pulling a handgun out of his waistband and then firing at them and other students nearby, Special Assistant Attorney General Lauren Iannelli said.

William Parsons, a Central High School student, was waiting outside for his father to pick him up and had nothing to do with the argument, Iannelli said.

One bullet hit him, going through his cheek and neck and lodging in his first vertebra, according to Iannelli.

Surveillance video showed William trying to run and then collapsing next to the PCTA sign.

At 3:09 p.m., William was pronounced dead at the hospital, the eighth homicide victim in the city this year.

William Parsons was not in a gang, and his backpack held only his schoolwork, Iannelli said.

The teenage suspect had multiple previous contacts with police and had been caught with weapons on school grounds, including a BB gun and a knife, according to the prosecutor. The boy told the police that he carried that gun at all times and was in a gang, Iannelli said.

The police found the teenage boy on Sprague Street with a bullet wound in his thigh, which he told them had come from a drive-by shooting. The nature of his wound, however, showed it had come at close range, according to the prosecutor.

A .357 Taurus revolver was found with a shirt in a nearby parking lot, with two spent shell casings and four live rounds, the prosecutor said. Surveillance video captured the suspect wrapping the firearm in the T-shirt and leaving it in that lot, Iannelli said.

Public defender Sean Powers waived the reading of the criminal petition against the teen and requested a probable cause hearing for Sept. 12. The judge ordered the boy detained at the Rhode Island Training School in the meantime, saying "he is definitely a danger to the public."

After the hearing, the police credited the cooperation of numerous witnesses who cared about justice for the victim.

"We've seen the community and the kids come out and really help us, all for the same goal: to get the person who did this," Maj. David Lapatin said.