Cedar Rapids Police have made an arrest in the shooting death of a 15-year-old boy. The suspect, now charged with first-degree murder, is even younger than the victim.
Fourteen-year-old Robert Humbles is being held in the Linn County Juvenile Detention Center after a family member took him to the Cedar Rapids police station on Wednesday.
Police aren’t discussing motive or releasing many other details because of retaliatory shootings following Richardson’s death. Greg Buelow is a spokesperson for the Cedar Rapids Police Department.
“We would like to be able to give more information, but we have at least two other shooting incidents that we believe are related to the homicide investigation,” Buelow said. “There’s additional work to be done.”
Richardson died at a hospital after he was shot Sunday night on the city’s southeast side. Buelow says every homicide is tragic, but this case is stirring up even more emotions in the community because of the ages of those involved. “You’ve got a 14 and a 15 year old involved…basically, a lot of lives are affected and a lot of families are going to be hurting. It’s really heartbreaking,” Buelow said.
Police in Iowa’s second largest city have responded to 75 confirmed incidents of “shots fired” so far this year. There were 96 cases of “shots fired” in Cedar Rapids all of last year.