DETROIT — A 19-year-old Detroit man facing murder and gun charges in the shooting of a man during the first night of protesting in Detroit has been arrested in Louisiana by the U.S. Marshals Service.
Tyjon Hites is charged with first-degree premeditated murder and felony firearm in the death of an Eastpointe man, Javar Harrell.
Harrell was gunned down in downtown Detroit at about 11:30 p.m. May 29 amid the first night of the recent police brutality-related protests in Detroit, and police initially reported that someone had shot into the crowd.
But further investigation led authorities to believe the shooting was more targeted.
“Investigation of the case has revealed that it had no connection to the demonstration,” the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement.
Last week, the Detroit Police Department announced the arrest of Omoni Bryant, 22, a man they described as an accomplice in the shooting. He was arraigned at Detroit’s 36th District Court on two counts: accessory to a felony after the fact, and felony firearm. Wayne County Jail records show Bryant remains jailed on a $10,000/10% bond.
They sought tips for the alleged shooter, Hites, who was arrested a week later in Monroe, La., about 1,000 miles from his home on Detroit’s west side.
Deputy Robert Watson, a spokesman for the U.S. Marshals Service, said the marshals “developed information the suspect was in Louisiana, and sent a team down there.” Authorities will look to extradite Hites back to Michigan. He declined to share details on how Hites was arrested, but said it was “without further incident.”
No timetable for Hites’s extradition was immediately available.
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