FRIDLEY, Minn. — A teen is in custody awaiting potential charges in the death of an 18-year-old woman in Fridley Thursday.
Anoka County Sheriff's spokesperson Tierney Peters says Fridley police and paramedics were dispatched to the 4500 block of 3rd St. NE just before 4 p.m. on reports of a pedestrian hit-and-run crash. Once there, they discovered the victim, later identified as 18-year-old Jayden Lee Klein.
First responders provided lifesaving care and transported Kline to a local hospital where she was pronounced deceased. It was discovered that she had suffered a gunshot wound.
"My neighbor called me and said, 'Look out your front door.' We thought it was a heart attack or something at first," longtime neighbor Lisa Garcia told KARE.
"We originally thought she got hit by a van, and then I looked at her and I saw her and the way she was laying, and I knew it wasn’t good. It was horrible to find out what happened to her and I can’t get her face out of my head right now."
Investigators located a 17-year-old boy later in the evening and took him into custody. Another neighbor told KARE that a ring camera video clip placed the suspect's van at the scene at the time Jayden was discovered.
Jayden Kline graduated last June from Columbia Heights High School, where she swam with the synchronized swimming team. Her teammate and best friend Marissa Foy spent the day with Jayden's mother Friday, but was too broken up emotionally to speak to reporters.
Marissa's sister Ashley Foy issued the following statement to KARE:
"I’m so heartbroken and so sorry for Jayden and her mother and loved ones. I ask that God please wrap his arms around us all and shower us with strength, love, support and healing in a time like this," Foy wrote.
"I am devastated. Jayden never deserved anything like this. This is a murder a senseless murder to a great person. You took a daughter, a sister, a niece, a friend. For what? And in front of her family home. Its something I still cannot seem to wrap my mind around I can’t about any of this, it just doesn’t seem real."
The Anoka County Sheriff's Office said charges wouldn't be filed until Tuesday morning at the earliest.
Investigators from Fridley PD and the Anoka County Sheriff's Office continue to work the case while the Hennepin County Medical Examiner's Office determines the victim's official cause of death.
KARE 11 is following this story and will share the latest details as they become available.
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