A MAN WHO fired his gun into a car, striking and killing a three-year-old boy, did so because he thought the driver of that vehicle was following him too closely.
Gary Eugene Holmes, 33, turned himself in to police in Arkansas last night. He is being held in jail on preliminary charges of capital murder in connection to the shooting death of Acen King last week.
Holmes pleaded not guilty to the preliminary charges and was jailed after a brief video arraignment this morning.
Police said Acen was on a shopping trip with his grandmother last Saturday when he was shot. The boy’s grandmother, Kim King-Macon, told authorities she had stopped at a stop sign in the pouring rain when a man honked his horn, then got out of his car and fired a gun.
King-Macon said she did not realise her grandson had been shot until she arrived at the shopping centre, about 10 miles away, and saw Acen slumped over in his seat.
Girlfriend
An statement from local Detective Steve Moore says investigators received a tip that the car involved in the shooting belonged to Holmes’ girlfriend, who is not named in court filings. According to the affidavit, the girlfriend told police that she was in the car with Holmes when the fatal shooting occurred.
She told investigators that Holmes said a Dodge Charger was following him too closely, so he pulled over and let the car go past. The affidavit says the girlfriend told police that Holmes got out of the car and fired his gun after the Charger stopped at a stop sign for “a few minutes”.
The girlfriend told police that Holmes said: “That’s what you get for following me around.”
Acen, who was sitting in the backseat of the Charger, was shot in the back and later died at a hospital. King-Macon and a one-year-old child who was also in the car were not injured.
The girlfriend said she and Holmes didn’t realise he had shot someone until the next day.
Authorities appealed to family members who arranged for Holmes’ surrender. The FBI and the city of Little Rock had offered a $40,000 (about €38,000) reward in the case.
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