Tragedy for family as boy found dead in car
Three young Mississippi men were arrested hours after a 6- year- old boy was found shot dead yesterday in his mother’s stolen car and the suspects will be charged with capital murder, authorities said.
Madison County District Attorney Michael Guest announced at a news conference that authorities plan to charge Byron McBride, D’Allen Washington and Dwan Wakefield in the death of the child.
Authorities found Kingston Frazier shot at least once in the back seat of his mother’s stolen car, which Jackson Police Commander Tyree Jones said was abandoned in a muddy ditch about 20km north of the capital.
Frazier had gone missing when a man was seen on video taking the car from the parking lot of a supermarket in Jackson, the state capital, according to authorities. About nine hours later, following a child- abduction alert and widespread publicity, a man reported the missing Toyota Camry was beside a dead- end road in the northern suburb of Gluckstadt.
Authorities publicly disclosed the boy’s death while surrounded by grieving family members.
“A 6- year- old i s gone,” said Kingston’s cousin, Kolby Irby. “His mother has to deal with this. That’s her baby.”
The three suspects were arrested within hours of the child’s body being found, authorities said, adding video and a witness helped identify them.
Authorities said Washington and Wakefield are both 17. McBride’s age was not immediately released.
In Mississippi, 17- year- olds accused of capital murder are tried as adults. The capital murder charge means prosecutors could seek the death penalty if the three are convicted, Guest said.
The mother, Ebony Archie, left the boy in the car, its engine running, while she went inside the supermarket, sheriff ’s deputies have said. The store’s parking lot is patrolled by sheriff ’s deputies, including one in a golf cart. Security video shows that after Archie left, another car drove up and a man got out and then drove off in the Camry.