Fort Worth police arrest 2 murder suspects in shooting deaths of teen, 5-year-old boy
Police have arrested two suspects in connection with the killings last week of 17- and 5-year-old boys outside their house in northwest Fort Worth.
Anthony Bell-Johnson, 21, and a 16-year-old boy were arrested on suspicion of capital murder in connection with the slayings, police said in a news release Tuesday.
Police did not immediately describe a motive in the killings of Rayshard Scott, 5, and his 17-year-old cousin, Jamarrien Monroe.
The boys were shot to death on Aug. 28 in the 8500 block of Steel Dust Drive. According to police, the gunfire came from people in a car that pulled up to the house at 2:15 p.m. while the boys were outside. Multiple cartridge casings were found on the street, and bullet holes were visible in the front door and the garage.
Police arrested the suspects over the weekend and announced the arrests on Tuesday.
Last week, Jamarrien’s mother told the Star-Telegram she was upstairs when she heard what sounded like fireworks. Witnesses said they heard at least 15 shots.
“It happened so fast,” said Tijuana West, Jamarrien’s mother. “I was just trying to figure out where my babies were.”
West said Tuesday that she is glad two suspects are in custody. She said she did not know Bell-Johnson.
Jamarrien had just enrolled in a new school in Haltom City. Rayshard just started his first year of school in August at Bryson Elementary in the Eagle Mountain-Saginaw school district.
The family is tight-knit, West said. She and her sister — the mother of 5-year-old Rayshard — live together in the home, along with their other children. Jamarrien had an 18-month-old son who was also injured in the shooting but is recovering well. The toddler did not live at the home but visited often, West said.
The family had regular game nights and movie nights together, West said, and had been living in the house since the neighborhood was built a few years ago. They were preparing to move into two separate apartments since the kids had gotten bigger and needed space of their own, she said.
Fort Worth Police Chief Neil Noakes has said the boys were “murdered completely senselessly.”
“We’re seeing violent crime on the rise across the country, and unfortunately we’re seeing violent crime here in Fort Worth in numbers we don’t want to see,” Noakes said on Aug. 28. “But when you have children — when you have children who are murdered completely senselessly, it adds just another level to that tragedy we’re all experiencing.”
Both boys were pronounced dead at a hospital, the latest victims of shootings that have killed at least 18 children and teens in Tarrant County so far this year.
Bell-Johnson also is being held on prior charges of engaging in organized criminal activity and unlawfully carrying a weapon, for which he had been on probation, according to jail and court records. His bond in the murder case has been set at $750,000.
Police have not publicly identified the 16-year-old suspect.
This story was originally published September 6, 2022 at 5:11 PM.
