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Crime, Law and Justice
Euan Kerr

Arrest made in July fatal shooting on Highway 169 in Plymouth

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Two vehicles on rainy highway.
Plymouth police released this photo in July that they believe depicts the moments leading up to a fatal shooting on U.S. Highway 169.
Plymouth Police Department

Updated 2:20 p.m.

Plymouth police say they have made an arrest in the July 6 fatal shooting of a motorist on U.S. Highway 169 in Plymouth.

The 33-year-old Chicago man, taken into custody last week in Decatur, Ill., is expected to be charged with second-degree murder, Erik Fadden, Plymouth’s police chief, told reporters Thursday afternoon.

“This was truly a needle in a haystack” investigation, Fadden said, praising the work of his detectives and others who spent hundreds of hours on the case reviewing video and pursuing leads.

The killing in the Minneapolis suburb occurred around 10 p.m. July 6 on Highway 169, south of Rockford Road. Two vehicles were traveling southbound when a suspect in one vehicle shot at another vehicle, hitting the driver, later identified as Jay Boughton. The suspect then fled the scene.

At a press conference following the incident Fadden said he believed there was some kind of traffic dispute before the shooting and that Boughton was shot in the head by someone in another vehicle.

On Thursday, Fadden described it as “traffic altercation” but not a “back-and-forth road rage” incident, adding it was “really just a senseless act that happened in a brief moment when two vehicles were next to each other.”

Boughton died at North Memorial Health Hospital. Police and family members say he was traveling home from coaching a youth baseball game with his son who was in the vehicle and was injured.

A vehicle that matched the description in the shooting was found after law enforcement released traffic camera images.

Fadden said the investigation into the shooting continues and wouldn’t comment on some details, including whether police are searching for any other suspects.

While he released the name of the suspect, MPR News typically does not name suspects until they are charged with a crime. The man is currently jailed in Illinois, Plymouth police said.