US Marshals Service personnel arrested a fugitive teenager on Thursday who was wanted on murder charges in connection with a deadly shooting at a Wisconsin shopping center days earlier, according to reports.
Dezman V. Ellis, 17, was arrested in Iowa, four days after Sunday’s shooting at Fox River Mall in Grand Chute, Wisconsin, outside of Green Bay. The shooting left Jovanni Frausto, 19, dead and forced mallgoers to take shelter in places while the authorities investigated. Another unidentified man was also shot in the hip.
Ellis is being charged as an adult in the case, Green Bay’s WBAY-TV reported.
His statewide arrest came “after an exhaustive and uninterrupted investigation,” said the Grand Chute Police Department, according to WBAY-TV in Green Bay.
The Grand Chute Police Department asked the US Marshals Service for help after the department found that Ellis was probably leaving the state. He was arrested by the Fugitive Regional Task Force of the Great Lakes Marshals in Des Moines, about 400 miles from the crime scene, without incident, according to the Post-Crescent of Appleton, Wis.
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Dezman V. Ellis, 17, faces first-degree murder charges.
(Grand Chute Police Department)
Ellis and Frausto allegedly met randomly at the mall and “started exchanging words” because of a girl and at some point Ellis supposedly showed Frausto a gun hidden near his waist.
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“I’m going to shoot this place, I’m going to kill him,” said the suspect, according to authorities.
Frausto would be unarmed.
Ellis would have shot Frausto twice: once in the chest and once in the arm and back.
After Frausto fell to the ground, Ellis fled the mall, told the police a girl who was with the suspect.
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The girl told the police that she and her friends went back to the car, where Ellis was already waiting for them. She said she was “scared” but still took him back to her apartment in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, the Post-Crescent reported.
After his arrest, Ellis was being held in a safe facility in Iowa, according to WBAY. He faces felony first-degree murder charges.