ALAMEDA — A man sought as a suspect in an April fatal shooting of a 2-year-old boy in Washington state was arrested Wednesday at a Bay Area homeless shelter, authorities said.
The suspect, Jerome Lewis Jr., 31, is being held without bail at the Santa Rita Jail on a fugitive warrant pending extradition. He was charged with first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder in Washington state, authorities said.
He was wanted as a suspect in the April 4 fatal shooting of a 2-year-old boy in a restaurant parking lot in Federal Way, Washington. The boy was taken to a hospital where he later died.
The suspected shooter in the case, a boy who was 16 at the time but has since turned 17, was arrested Oct. 2 at his home in the city of Federal Way, authorities said. He will be charged as an adult with murder and attempted murder, authorities said.
It was not immediately known how Lewis was traced to Alameda or how long he had been there. He was arrested Wednesday morning by Alameda police at a city-run homeless shelter.
According to Washington authorities, the intended target of the shooting was the two-year-old's father, who had previously had an argument and “bad blood” with Jerome Lewis. The father had parked his SUV in the restaurant parking lot with the two-year-old and his little sibling in the back seat.
The two suspects were alerted by another person that the father was in the parking lot and had driven there in a stolen vehicle, authorities said.
The teenage suspect shot into the vehicle in the parking lot and then fled in the stolen car Lewis was driving, authorities said. The father fired at least one shot in return, authorities said, but neither suspect was injured.
Lewis was eventually identified as the getaway driver when his DNA was found in the stolen car after it was abandoned. Authorities also said phone records and other evidence linked both suspects to the shooting.
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