Three arrested in shooting death of 14-year-old girl
Minneapolis police have arrested an 18-year-old, and two 16-year-olds. Captain Mike Martin says the three male suspects had tried to join the party that Charez Jones was attending with her boyfriend and stepbrother. But Martin says they weren't allowed in.
"They stuck around and they eventually fired shots at another group that was on the sidewalk in front of the location where the party was, and one of those rounds struck Charez Jones and killed her," he said
The only one of the three identified by police is Willie Cortez Buckingham, 18.
Martin says one of the 16-year-olds is the alleged shooter. Police caught two of the suspects. The third was hauled in by his own mother. Police say the three are well-known to law enforcement and affiliated with the Tre-Tre Crips gang. According to the complaint against Buckingham, the group was fired upon by members of the "Taliban" gang.
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Chief Tim Dolan says there are no easy answers for why this killing happened.
"The reality is that we all bear this burden for Charez Jones' death," he said at a news conference. "It's about free access to guns, it's about economic disparity, educational disparity, and a revolving criminal justice system that creates monsters like these and allows them to do these monstrous acts."
Dolan stressed that Charez Jones was not an intended target, she was an innocent victim who did nothing to provoke her killing.
Captain Martin says police got a lot of tips from people at the scene and from the community at large.
"Due to some excellent cooperation from citizens, parents, kids who were present, people in the schools, we got a number of tips through our tip line, that allowed us to put together the pieces, they gave us the probable cause to make these arrests," he said.
Martin says police expect to make more arrests in the case as they track down people who may have helped the suspects after the shooting.
"I am sickened, as a parent, and as a mayor, by the fact that a child would be shot down by criminals," said Mayor R. T. Rybak. Too many children become victims of crime, the mayor said. Despite help from community members in this case, Rybak says he remains concerned about social pressure to keep quiet. He pointed to popular T-shirts that say "Stop Snitchin'," and a rap song by the same name. Rybak says that message can keep kids from giving information that would protect the lives of their friends.
"Criminals with guns who create heinous acts can't hide behind their 'Stop Snitchin' T-shirts," he said. "People need to be rightfully outraged, that too often criminals with guns are killing our children, and the way to stop that is to come forward, work with us and give us the information we need to make sure that the decent people in this city continue to be protected."
Jones' killing brings the number of Minneapolis homicides so far this year to 25. Twenty of those have occurred in the North Minneapolis precinct where Jones was killed.
