A 14-year old boy was arrested Saturday in connection with the shooting death of a younger teenager that happened earlier in the day in St. Paul’s North End neighborhood.
The suspect in the death of the 12-year-old is in the Ramsey County Juvenile Detention Center on suspicion of manslaughter, St. Paul police said in a statement that came nearly 12 hours after the shooting.
Family members identified the victim as Markee Jones and the suspect as Jones' own brother.
During a vigil on Sunday for Markee, family and friends called for the person who left a loaded gun in the house to be held responsible.
Word of the arrest could not lift the gloom that enveloped the hardscrabble neighborhood along the 200 block of Stinson St. West, not far from the vibrant corner of Front and Rice.
Tearful hugs were seen as people gathered in the backyard of the house at the shooting site.
Neighborhood children sat side-by-side on front porches, the sound of soft weeping filtering through the warm Saturday night air.
The boy who died, according to police, is the 22nd reported homicide of 2023 in St. Paul.
According to police reports, officers were called to the scene just before 5:00 a.m. Saturday on a report that a juvenile had been shot.
The boy was suffering from gunshot wounds and was taken by St. Paul Fire Department medics to Regions Hospital, where he later died.
Investigators worked the scene and talked to witnesses as darkness turned to daylight.
St. Paul police are expected to release further details on Sunday.