Tyrique Radford El: Indiana teen arrested for fatal shooting of school student, 16, at bus stop over 'minor conflict'
GREENWOOD, INDIANA: Police have announced the arrest of 18-year-old Tyrique Sevin Radford El in connection to the deadly shooting of a Whiteland Community High School sophomore who was shot and killed while at a bus stop on Thursday morning, August 25. Radford El was arrested by the Greenwood Police Department on Thursday and faces a preliminary charge of murder. The shooting occurred around 6.50 am at a bus stop located in the area of Winterwood Drive and Providence Drive.
Indy Star reported that witnesses said 16-year-old Temario Stokes Jr had been waiting at the bus stop when someone in a black hoodie came up and shot him several times. Police stated the shooting was believed to be targeted. After the shooting, the suspect fled from the scene leading several schools in Greenwood and Whiteland to go into lockdown. Police were actively searching for the suspect. About three hours later officers saw a man who fit the description walking near a cornfield, approaching a backyard on Declaration Drive. Officers approached the man and noticed he was soaking wet and his clothes had dirt on them. He identified himself as Radford El and was taken into custody at around 4 pm. Greenwood police didn’t release the suspect’s name at the time but Radford El’s identity was later confirmed by the Johnson County Sheriff’s Department.
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The teens likely knew each other, Greenwood Police Chief James Ison said, though in exactly what way is unclear. Police believe there was a "minor conflict" between the two that preceded the shooting. Radford El lived in a neighborhood about a mile west of Stokes, Ison said. "My baby was an outgoing person," the victim’s mother Tiera Ervin told. "My baby would give people the shirt off his back. My baby was a beautiful person who is gone too soon. It took my heart away from me", Fox News reported. She said he had two younger siblings and their family moved into the neighborhood in April. Ervin added, "When I heard the shots, I ran outside and saw my son lying on the ground, shot multiple times."
A witness said the area where the shooting occurred was usually a quiet area but had been awoken early by the gunfire. “The guilt and sadness I feel for their families. The fact that I was upset that I was woken up early by the sounds of their child being taken from them. That could have been any of us. That could have been any of us,” the witness said.
Ison asked parents to be engaged in their child's life and teach them conflict resolution. Young adults and children need a better way of solving issues than resorting to pulling a trigger, a solution that many youths seem to be choosing, he said. "As a result of yesterday, there's a 16-year-old young man that lost his life. There's a family that's experiencing unimaginable grief because of that loss. But there's also another family that lost an 18-year-old who's now incarcerated for murder," Ison said.
The number of shootings in Greenwood is "out of the norm," Ison said. A shooting at Greenwood Park Mall in July left four people, including the shooter, dead. Two others were injured. Ison is hoping this trend doesn't continue. "I'm hoping the law of averages says that we're headed for a wall," he said.