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Waldorf resident Elijah Bernard Barnes, 18, was arrested by members of the Rocky Mount Police Department in North Carolina in connection to the murder of Westlake High School student Rajon Lateef Jackson III, 17, who was shot and killed last week in their hometown.
At approximately 2:30 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 13, officials say that Barnes was in a car when he gunned down Jackson in the area of Dorchester Circle and Harvest Fish Place.
According to the sheriff's office, when officers arrived at the scene of the shooting, they found Jackson suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. He was treated by paramedics at the scene and rushed to an area hospital where he was pronounced dead the following day early on Saturday, Jan. 14.
The investigation into the teen’s murder led the sheriff’s office and the agency’s Homeland Security and Intelligence Section to identify Barnes as a suspect who had ties to an address in North Carolina.
Investigators in Maryland contacted their counterparts at the Rocky Mount Police Department who were able to apprehend Barnes without any reported incident, the agency announced on Thursday, Jan. 19.
Barnes will be charged with first-degree murder and second-degree murder once he is extradited from North Carolina back to Maryland, officials said.
No motive for the murder has been announced by investigators, though detectives say that the two were known to each other and this wasn’t a random shooting.
Anyone with information has been asked to contact Det. Bringley at the Charles County Sheriff’s Office by calling (301) 609-6499 or Crime Stoppers at 1-866-411-TIPS.
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