A Georgia teen charged in connection with the shooting death of a 19-year-old man at the Mall of America in Minnesota last month was arrested on Tuesday, authorities said.
Lavon Semaj Longstreet, 17, was arrested by U.S. Marshals in Decatur, Georgia, WSB-TV reported. He had been staying in Decatur since Johntae Raymon Hudson, 19, was fatally shot on Dec. 23 at a Nordstrom store in the largest mall in the U.S., located in Bloomington, according to the television station.
Longstreet and Taeshawn Adams-Wright, 18, who was arrested on Dec. 24, both face murder charges in Hudson’s death, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported. Four other people were arrested that day, according to WSB.
Two 17-year-old juveniles were each charged with one count of second-degree riot, KSTP-TV reported.
Lavon Longstreet was the sixth teenager arrested in the shooting that killed a 19-year-old. https://t.co/c7bdtwfxDh
— WSB-TV (@wsbtv) January 17, 2023
During a news conference on Tuesday, Bloomington police Chief Booker Hodges said that Longstreet’s mother, Erica McMillian, 39, was arrested in Golden Valley, Minnesota, according to the Pioneer Press. Hodges said that McMillian drove her son to Georgia to help him elude authorities and is being held on suspicion of aiding and abetting.
In Decatur, a 30-year-old woman suspected of aiding an offender and a 31-year-old man with a warrant for an unrelated assault were also arrested, KSTP reported.
“I said anybody that helps him is going to get locked up,” Hodges told reporters. “Your son killed somebody and you drive him to Georgia. You cannot drive somebody who murdered somebody out of state, even if it’s your son.”
Longstreet remains jailed in DeKalb County, Georgia, pending extradition proceedings, WSB reported. Adams-Wright is in jail in Hennepin County, Minnesota, with bail set at $1.5 million, CNN reported. He is expected in court on Monday, according to jail records.
At his news conference, Hodges did not say how Longstreet was tracked to Georgia. Authorities in Minnesota said they plan to prosecute him as an adult, according to the Pioneer Press.
“This is another example of guns being placed in the hands of immature young people, resulting in deadly consequences in what was once safe public places,” U.S. Marshal Thomas Brown said in a statement, according to WSB. “The U.S. Marshals Service will continue to work with our state and local partners to get these guns off the streets and enhance the security of our communities.”
In December, Hodges told reporters that the shooting involved an altercation between two groups of young men at about 7:50 p.m. CST, the Star Tribune of Minneapolis reported. The people involved in the shooting fled the scene, Hodges said.
During the altercation, Adams-Wright and Longstreet allegedly brandished handguns with extended magazines, KSTP reported.
The group chased Hudson, and surveillance video allegedly shows Adams-Wright and Longstreet standing over him at different points, according to the television station.
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