Police have arrested three suspects in the shooting that killed a 33-year-old Brooklyn mother and injured a sixth-grade girl outside a school that had just dismissed children last week.
Police said Tuesday that Andrew Lopez, 18, has been arrested on murder and assault charges. Sources said detectives tracked him based on a tip. Police later announced another arrest for the same charges: Jonathan Carrasquillo, 22.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said Lopez shot from the roof at a crowd that included parents and schoolchildren in a sort of "retaliation" shooting for a dispute involving his brother. Carrasquillo's role was not immediately clear.
A 17-year-old third suspect was also arrested for criminal possession of a weapon; in this case, a baseball bat.
Zurana Horton, a mother of 12, died of a gunshot wound to the chest. Gunfire erupted on Watkins Street Friday just after classes let out at P.S. 298.
Police said she sought to protect a group of children as the bullets flew.
An 11-year-old girl was grazed in the face, and another 31-year-old mother was shot in the arm and chest.
Residents gathered near the crime scene in Brooklyn for a rally Tuesday applauded the arrests.
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"We are very, very happy, you know, and we want to try to stand together more, not only today," said Dora Bush.
At a vigil later that night, Horton's family gathered with a new purpose since learning her alleged killer had been caught: the broken-hearted community was determined to use the tragedy to get illegal guns off the street.
"It hurts to know that 13 are hurt, a family was traumatized, and it was babies that did this," said Talisha Whaley, Horton's cousin. "We have to take our streets back."
The father of Tayshana Murphy, the teenage Harlem basketball star killed in gun violence in September, also appeared at the vigil.
"We have to stand up and be held accountable for the things that happen in our communities," said Murphy. "And please don't wait until it happens in your backyard for you to come out here with this passion that have... because I haven't slept since my daughter died."
An 11-year-old girl was grazed in the face, and another 31-year-old mother was shot in the arm and chest.
It was not immediately clear whether the suspects had lawyers.
