Following tips to police, a suspect was arrested in connection with the fatal shooting of 10-year-old Justin Wallace in Queens.
Jovan Young, 29, was arrested on Tuesday. He is facing charges of murder and attempted murder for the shooting.
Following the shooting, Young was brought into the 101st precinct for questioning. He was subsequently let go, but investigators did not feel he was truthful about his whereabouts or his connection to the crime. He returned to the station on Tuesday and was formally charged.
Young was arrested on what would have been Wallace’s 11th birthday. The community is now rallying around the family, including holding a vigil for the fifth-grader on Wednesday night.
The boy was killed inside his Far Rockaway home on Saturday night. Wallace was struck in the torso, and the bullet hit his left lung and heart.
“The pain that Justin’s parents are feeling right now, no parent should ever go through that,” said NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio. “No one should ever experience that. I’m going to speak as a parent myself. Every parent fears constantly, deep down, that they might not follow the way it is supposed to in life. You are supposed to see your children live their lives out.”
