HOOVER, Ala. (AP) — Three people are now charged in the killing of an 8-year-old boy who was shot to death inside Alabama’s largest shopping mall, news outlets reported.
Police in the Birmingham suburb of Hoover on Tuesday announced capital murder charges against King Gary Williams and Demetrius Dewayne Jackson Jr., both 19 and of Birmingham. They are charged in the killing last Friday of Royta Giles Jr.
Montez Coleman, 22, was charged in the killing on Sunday.
All three men were jailed without bond, and court records did not show defense attorneys who could speak on their behalf.
Police said the boy was caught in the crossfire of a shootout that began inside the Riverchase Galleria mall. The child was waiting with his family to go inside a store to buy new outfits for July 4., and three other people were wounded.
The mall has been the scene of other shootings including the police killing of Emantic “E.J.” Bradford Jr. on Thanksgiving night in 2018. Police often patrol the mall area, and officials in Hoover said security changes are needed to protect shoppers.
“All of those things are going to have to tie in to restore the confidence to those that visit that mall each and every day,” Mayor Frank Brocato told WBRC-TV.