Minneapolis police say they have arrested a suspect in the shooting of a 5-year-old girl, who relatives say was hit in the foot by a wayward bullet while she slept in her bed.
Marquell Deon Johnson, 27, has been charged with carrying out a drive-by shooting and with weapons possession. Police did not detail the circumstances of the arrest, which occurred a day after the shooting early Monday morning at a duplex in the 2100 block of N. 4th Street.
Online jail records show Johnson was booked on Tuesday and remains jailed on $150,000 bond. His initial court appearance is set for Friday afternoon.
According to charges, early on the morning of the shooting, Johnson drove past the duplex just north of the intersection of Interstate 94 and Broadway Avenue and opened fire, apparently targeting a rival who lived in the same building. Witnesses recalled hearing seven shots, at least some of which hit the lower unit where the girl lived with her family.
Charges say the girl's mother told police she was driving to the gas station when she noticed an older black Honda Civic creeping past her duplex, and that she got a bad feeling when she recognized the driver as Johnson, who she knew to be acquainted with her upstairs neighbors. Minutes later, she heard gunshots and raced home to check on her daughter. Hospital staff told authorities that the bullet passed through the girl's right foot, fracturing several bones, according to a criminal complaint filed in Hennepin County District Court.
An online fundraising page said that the girl, Jayda, was asleep in her bedroom when two of the bullets pierced her bedroom, with one round striking her foot and another flying inches from her head and lodging into a nearby wall. In a post on the page, her mother wrote that the family had temporarily moved into a hotel following the shooting and that she was seeking financial help for food and household items, as well as to buy Jayda a new bed and bedding.
Police were later led to Johnson after someone pointed out his Facebook page to them, and provided investigators with an alias he often used, the complaint said.
K.G. Wilson, a longtime anti-violence activist, said the arrest brought a measure of relief to Jayda's mother, who had been trying to move out of the area before the shooting happened. He recalled a heartening moment during a TV interview days after the shooting, in which a reporter asked Jayda what, if given the chance, she would say to the alleged gunman.
