Police officials had previously identified De Juan Lamar Kelley as the suspect in the deadly shooting of Michael T. Parker on June 7.
(Jackson County Detention Center)
Police in Kansas City, MO, have arrested a man suspected in a deadly shooting last month in Bloomington, law enforcement officials said Wednesday.
The Kansas City Police Dept.’s fugitive task force arrested De Juan Lamar Kelley after authorities in Bloomington passed along an anonymous tip they received Tuesday, they said.
“Task Force Officers began surveilling the address and observed Kelley exit the building a short time later,” the Bloomington Police Dept. said in a statement.
“Kelley attempted to flee from the officers on foot, but was eventually apprehended and transported to the Jackson County Detention Center in Kansas City where he is being held” on a warrant issued a day after the shooting, it said.
The June 8 warrant was for murder and carrying a handgun without a license.
The statement did not say how or when Kelley would be transported to Monroe County.
Police officials said in June that officers found Parker with a gunshot wound to the neck in the passenger seat of a vehicle outside a gas station. Officers initiated lifesaving measures and took the 39-year-old to the hospital via ambulance where he was declared dead, they said at the time.
He left the Monroe County Courthouse Square en route to the Circle S gas station on Walnut Street to pick up water for protesters, organizers and family members said.
“Big Mike was protesting with us, and he had been for days. And last night he left to go get supplies,” organizer Patrick Ford said. “While he was there – we don’t know who did it – Big Mike was shot three times. One hit his carotid artery and he bled out,” Ford said.
At a candlelight vigil the same day, friends and relatives urged attendees to honor Parker’s life by continuing his fight for justice and equality.
