MINNEAPOLIS - Police say they've made an arrest in connection with the shooting death of a 2-year-old boy in North Minneapolis earlier this month.
Police say the man is being booked into the Hennepin County Jail for probable cause murder. He has not yet been charged.
On July 8, police were dispatched to the area of Lowry Avenue North and Penn Avenue North on a call of shots fired.
They were soon notified that two victims were dropped off at North Memorial Hospital. A 2-year-old boy, Le'Vonte King Jason Jones, was pronounced dead. His 15-month-old sister suffered a non-life threatening gunshot wound.
In the days that followed, the boy's mother, Leshea Jones, called for an end to the violence.
“I hope that this changes. I pray this violence changes. Whoever did this probably has little brothers or cousins. It could have been anyone of them,” Jones told KARE 11.
Last week, students at Lucy Laney held hands and formed a circle at at memorial full of balloons, flowers and notes, honoring Le'Vonte.
On July 15, the father of the boy was arrested and booked on felony weapons charges in connection with the incident.
According the the criminal complaint, Melvonte Lee Peterson, 25, of Brooklyn Center, was driving the minivan when someone in a black Chevy Impala fired two shots into the van. Peterson pulled out his own weapon and fired as many as nine shots at the fleeing Impala. Records show Peterson has been convicted twice of possession of a controlled substance, which makes it illegal for him to possess a firearm.
