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Teen arrested on murder warrant in Nebraska mall shooting

Omaha World-Herald

Omaha, Neb. – A teenage boy suspected in a shooting at a Nebraska mall that left one man dead and a woman injured was arrested Sunday on a murder warrant, police said.

Makhi Woolridge-Jones

Omaha Police said 16-year-old Makhi Woolridge-Jones is facing a first-degree murder charge in the shooting Saturday at the Westroads Mall in Omaha. Brandon Woolridge-Jones, 18, was earlier arrested on a charge of being an accessory to the shooting.

The two young men were identified as brothers in a previous court filing their mother submitted in 2016 for a protection order.

People hug in the parking lot after a shooting at Westroads Mall on Saturday, April 17, 2021 in Omaha, Nebraska.

Police spokesman Officer Michael Pecha said investigators were not seeking any other suspects Sunday.

Terrified shoppers fled for cover as shots rang out around midday near a J.C. Penney store at the mall

Police said 21-year-old Trequez Swift was shot and died at an Omaha hospital. A woman, 22-year-old Ja’Keya Veland, was wounded in her leg, but her injuries are not considered life-threatening.

Authorities have not described the circumstances leading up to the shooting, but said it was an isolated incident and not a random attack.

Last month, Omaha Police Officer Jeffrey Wittstruck was shot at four times by a 21-year-old man who was accused of shoplifting T-shirts from J.C. Penney at Westroads. Wittstruck survived.

In 2007, a gunman killed eight people and himself inside the Von Maur department store at Westroads.