GRAND CHUTE, Wisconsin (WBAY) – A teenager wanted for first-degree murder in the Fox River Mall shooting on Sunday is in custody.
Grand Chute police said Dezman Ellis, 17, was arrested in Des Moines, Iowa, without incident on Thursday afternoon, around 3:30 am.
The Grand Chute Police Department said that while trying to track down Ellis’s whereabouts, they found that he was probably leaving the state. They asked for help from the US Marshals Service.
The United States Marshals’ Fugitive Regional Task Force for the Great Lakes agreed to assist with the investigation on Monday. “After a thorough and uninterrupted investigation,” said the police department, Ellis was taken into custody at a home in Des Moines, about 400 miles from Grand Chute.
Ellis is charged at the Outagamie County Circuit Court with 1st Degree Intentional Homicide and Reckless Safety 1st Degree. According to prosecutors, police believe Ellis shot and killed 19-year-old Jovanni Frausto in the mall’s food court during an argument over a girl who was dating Ellis. An autopsy said Frausto died of two gunshot wounds, including one to the chest. Another person who was shot was treated at a hospital and was discharged.
Outagamie County Circuit Court judge Carrie Schneider issued an arrest warrant for Ellis on Tuesday and added a $ 750,000 bail amount on Wednesday.
The police department told Action 2 News that Ellis is in a secure facility in the custody of US Marshals. Our ABC sister station in Des Moines confirmed that he is still in Iowa. Although he is accused as an adult in Wisconsin, Polk County Sheriff’s Office said he is being held in a juvenile detention facility by the delegate service.
The Grand Chute Police Department issued a statement that reads in part: “We would also like to express our sincere gratitude to the public for the countless tips we received during the course of this investigation.”
The police tell us that the Great Lakes Regional Task Force includes the offices of the US Marshals in Green Bay; Milwaukee; Madison; Chicago; and Hammond, Indiana; along with the Southern Iowa Fugitive Task Force. Members of the Appleton / Outagamie County Sheriff’s Office special investigative unit are appointed officers of the US Marshals Task Force.
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