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12-year-old boy suspected for murder in Omaha, Nebraska
According to local authorities, a 12-year-old boy fatally shot a 31-year-old man in the town of Omaha, Nebraska. The police suspect the boy was part of a gang at the time of the killing. The boy was found and arrested in Minneapolis, Minnesota by the US Marshals Service.
The 12-year-old gang member is not the only suspect the police are looking for in connection to the murder. Two other young boys are suspected for being involved in shooting and killing a man on June 29 in Omaha, according to the local police.
Officials stated that the young boy will be brought back to Omaha later this week. The mayor of Omaha, Jean Stothert said that two other teen suspects, aged 15 and 17, are under arrest after being charged with first degree murder. The 17-year-old teenager is the older brother of the 12-year-old boy, according to the news release.
The police said the three young suspects lured Jamymell Ray, the man who was shot and killed, and another man, to a park in Omaha with the intention of selling them marijuana. The boys’ plan was to rob the men but the situation got out of control and they started shooting each other. In the gunfire, one of the men was killed, while the other was seriously wounded, according to official statement released by the Omaha police.
Todd Schmaderer, Police Chief of Omaha, said that the three teenagers were connected to some local gangs but the man who got killed was not. Schmaderer stated that he is very concerned because more and more gangs are using young members and manipulate them into doing their “dirty work”.
According to Schmaderer, there 11 known criminal gangs in the city of Omaha, which has more than 445,000 people, and these gangs have been involved in more than three violent crimes this past year.
The older boys have been charged as adults and the 12-year-old teenager is going to be charged as juvenile, following a Nebraska law that was introduced in 2015. The new law says that it’s prohibited to charge a youth younger than 14 as an adult.
It’s still not clear how the older boys will plead to the charges or if their cases will be transferred to the juvenile court. The 12-year-old boy who shot and killed the man was in Minneapolis at the time of his arrest and police are investigating if he fled Omaha to hide from the authorities at other members of his gang.
Image Source: thesmokinggun
