Manhunt ends for 18-year-old suspected of killing two teens in Watauga
Watauga police arrested the 18-year-old man they say shot and killed two 17-year-old boys on March 12, less than a week after the department asked for the public’s help in locating him, according to a news release.
Police said Keiwone Leotis Morris was arrested Tuesday evening after Watauga police and the Texas Attorney General’s Fugitive Apprehension Unit found him. He is being held at the Tarrant County Jail on a combined $1 million bond and charged with two counts of capital murder.
Wes Ball, Morris’ attorney, said Morris was not captured but turned himself in.
“I arranged for the surrender of Mr. Morris, who walked into the courthouse and met with me,” Ball told the Star-Telegram in an email.
Morris shot and killed the teenage boys in the area of 5400 Caribou Ridge Drive around 2 p.m. March 12, according to police. Investigators managed to impound a car that matched the description given by witnesses who said they saw a vehicle leaving the scene. They said Morris also matches witness descriptions.
Ball said in the email to the Star-Telegram that Morris was acting in self-defense but did not elaborate on how. Ball did not immediately respond to an email for more information on how the shooting was self-defense.
The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office identified one of the teens as Johnny Rojas, of Fort Worth, and a GoFundMe set up by the friends of the second victim identified him as Klodian Ramaj.
Patrick Symons, who has lived in the area for about five years, told the Star-Telegram after the shooting that he and his wife were getting ready to attend his sister’s wedding March 12 around 2 p.m. when his dogs began “going ballistic,” thinking someone was banging on their front door, just yards away from where the shooting occurred.
“There was a black sedan driving off. … It was a car we weren’t familiar with, and at first I was worried that it was my neighbor across the street, his kids, but it wasn’t because I know what they drive, but I was worried that somehow they got a ride or something,” Symons said. “There was like a black Chevy truck with its passenger doors opened and you could kind of see someone slumped down on the side and the car driving off.”
Symons had just gotten out of the shower when the shooting occurred. After seeing what happened outside, he registered that shots had been fired and he urged his wife to get back inside their home and call the police.
“I don’t think it was a slow response, but one of those things where it was like seconds feel a lot longer when you’re waiting [for the police] to show up,” he said. “We found out the next day it was two kids who go to the high school over here, and they’re not from the neighborhood, they just stopped here.”
This story was originally published March 23, 2022 at 5:05 PM.