Citizens and authorities in Omaha are unsettled over the case of a baby-faced 12-year-old boy charged with murder in a shooting in a city park that police said was related to drugs and gangs. Jarrell Milton is charged with first-degree murder, along with his brother, Jamar E. Milton, 17, and Shuntayvious Primes-Willis, 15. One man was killed and another wounded in the June 29 shooting when they were lured to Miller Park on the city’s north side on a weed-sale ruse.
Jarrell Milton was returned to Omaha this week after he was arrested in Minneapolis, where he had relatives. The Omaha World-Herald reports that Milton’s father, Javaris Milton, 37, is imprisoned in Minnesota for killing a man in 2010 in an eerily similar drug-related robbery attempt. Jarrell's mother also has served prison time for a violent crime. People across the country have expressed disbelief, mostly via social media, at the notion that someone as young as Jarrell Milton could be involved in a gang- and drug-related homicide. Prosecutor Donald Kleine says Milton is the youngest person he can remember linked to a first-degree murder charge.