ST PAUL, Minn. — A St. Paul family is grieving after a 12-year-old boy was shot and killed in the North End on Saturday morning.
On Saturday afternoon, police announced a 14-year-old male was arrested and taken to the Ramsey County Juvenile Detention Center on suspicion of manslaughter.
In a press release, police said officers were called to a home in the 200 block of Stinson Avenue just before 5 a.m. Saturday on a report that a juvenile male had been shot.
When medics arrived and found the boy, they rushed him to Regions Hospital where he later died.
The Ramsey County Medical Examiner will officially release the boy's name and cause of death in the coming days.
However, family members have identified the boy as Markee Jones.
"Markee Jones was a sweet loving little boy, still a baby, still a baby," Caniya Fryer said. Fryer said she is a friend of Markee's mother. "He leaves behind his mother, cousins, sisters, brother. It's just a messed up situation that don't nobody family wants to deal with."
Marilyn Hill, Markee's great-aunt said she knows there wasn't a gun inside the house where Markee was killed.
"The house that he got killed at is my sister's house," Hill said. "She was out of town. And this house is a safe house, just like she spoke. There's no firearms in this house. We're God's people."
Hill added that she wants whoever brought the weapon inside the home to turn themselves in.
"All I want you to do and put out there is for him to be a man enough to know that he done something wrong," Hill said. "To just turn himself in-- they're welcoming him to come to him, in order for the police to pick him up," Hill referred to The Lion of Judah Armed Forces President Nasiy Nasir X.
"Our people continue to leave these firearms laying around places, this continues to show the problem and issues that we have within our community," Nasir X said. "Especially on our home, especially on our children, especially on these houses-- especially when they're loaded at that. Our people and this ongoing gun violence that continues to go on, we need to make sure that we say something about it, do something about it and make changes within our homes and within our community."
Nasir X said Markee's family will be holding a candlelight vigil and balloon release Sunday at 6 p.m. at 294 Stinson Ave, St. Paul.
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