Police in Helena-West Helena have made an arrest in the shooting death of a teenager and are investigating gunfire that caused a 1-year-old boy to be hospitalized on Sunday, authorities said.
Authorities charged Dayquan Davis, 19, on Thursday in the fatal shooting of 15-year-old Shortavious Williams, Helena West-Helena Police Chief James Smith said.
Williams was shot and killed in the upstairs bedroom of an apartment in the 600 block of York Street in the early morning hours of Jan. 20, according to police.
The 15-year-old victim had moved in with Davis and Davis’ mother after he was asked to leave his grandfather’s house, authorities said. Smith said police interviewed Davis and concluded he was alone upstairs with the victim at the time of the shooting, but have not determined a motive for the murder.
Davis faces charges of first-degree murder and evidence tampering.
On Sunday afternoon, an infant was injured during a shooting that appears to be unrelated, police said.
According to authorities, two males approached an apartment complex at about 4 p.m. in the 1000 block of Walnut Street, where the 1-year-old child’s father was standing outside. The pair forced the man down and used what appeared to be assault rifles to shoot at other people, Smith said.
The man’s infant son, who was struck by debris from the shooting while inside the living room of an apartment, was taken to Helena Regional Medical Center and was later released, the police chief said. Authorities said no one else was injured in the shooting, but said they found over a dozen spent casings at the scene.
The investigation is ongoing, according to police. Smith said the shooting may be retaliation for the Jan. 22 murder of 25-year-old Kasey Grant, who was shot outside a Helena-West Helena gas station.