Police said on Saturday that the 16-year-old who is suspected of shooting and killing a classmate on his first day of high school in Maryland on Friday has been taken into custody.
According to the Harford County Sheriff’s Office, Jaylen Rushawn Prince has been charged as an adult with murder, first- and second-degree assault, and using a firearm while committing a felony or violent crime.
The youthful suspect in the killing was apprehended in a neighboring apartment building shortly after the fatal shooting at Joppatowne High School on Friday. In an attempt to elude capture, the suspect tried breaking into a house.
Although the details of Prince’s claimed victim’s relationship, Warren Curtis Grant, 15, are yet unknown, authorities claim the two youngsters were acquainted.
Authorities said that at approximately 12:35 p.m., Prince got into a fight and fired one shot in the boy’s restroom on the first level. Tuesday marked Prince’s first day of classes at Joppatowne High School.
After being pulled by students into the corridor, Grant was treated by school nurses and taken by air to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, where he ultimately passed away.
Prince ran out of the school but was apprehended at 12:50 p.m. It took until Saturday afternoon to identify him.
Law enforcement has prior knowledge of the adolescent gunman. Although they couldn’t confirm if he had a juvenile record, police did reveal that Prince had previously been involved in calls for service.
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“We’ve had more than 10 incidents since 2022 where the suspect was either the victim, witness or the suspect in Harford County Sheriff’s Office investigations,” officials stated on Friday night.
There is still no sign of the retrieved firearm.
Two days have passed since the alleged shooting incident at Apalachee High School in northern Georgia, where 14-year-old Colt Gray killed two pupils and two instructors and wounded nine others.
Colt and his father Colin Gray, who months after the child was charged with making threats of a school shooting, is said to have given him the AR-15-style rifle used in the atrocity for Christmas. They are both under arrest and facing murder charges.
During their first court appearance on Friday, the couple was informed that they might be imprisoned for the rest of their lives.
