Chief Warren Evans: arrest of suspect Jeffrey Brooks a result of tireless investigation (Photo by Shayna Fields-Clark/Tell Us Detroit)

POLICE NAME ALLEGED CODY BUS STOP SHOOTER

DETROIT (Tell Us Det) - More than one year after two masked teenagers indiscriminately opened fire at a crowded bus stop in front of Cody 9th Grade Academy, wounding seven students, Detroit Police have arrested a teenager they allege is one of the two gunmen, Chief Warren Evans announced today.

Jeffrey “Shug” Brooks, 18, was arraigned today on seven counts of assault with intent to murder, seven counts of felonious assault and one count of felony firearms for allegedly firing rounds that injured the students in one of the city's most disturbing and notorious crimes in recent years. On Thursday, Detroit Police arrested Brooks at a youth detention camp in central Michigan to which he had been sentenced for an unrelated incident and was about to be released. Investigators submitted a warrant request to the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office, which approved the charges on Saturday.

“Our investigators, as well as those with the FBI and Violent Gang-Major Crimes Task Force, have worked tirelessly to bring this case to the point of an arrest and charges,” Chief Evans said. “There have been a lot of dead ends and frustrations along the way, but they never gave up on their commitment to bring some closure to this community.”



The shooting occurred on the afternoon of June 30, 2009 at the bus stop in front of Cody 9th Grade Academy, where many students were attending summer school classes. Investigators believe the shooting was in retaliation to a gang related fight that occurred the day before and allegedly involved one of the gunmen, who police say then recruited his two accomplices.

Chilling video of the shooting taken from a corner gas station has been showed countless times on local and some national media outlets and had come to be known as one of Detroit's most well known unsolved crimes. Now, Chief Evans says, images of the shooting can instead serve to remind citizens of the dedication of Detroit Police investigators to close the case.

The arrest of Brooks is the second arrest this week related to the bus stop shooting. With significant pressure being applied by the Violent Gangs-Major Crimes Task Force, Demetrius Hinton, 20, turned himself in Monday afternoon to Detroit Police. While Hinton was wanted for a combination fatal & non-fatal shooting unrelated to the Cody incident, he is considered a person of interest in that case. Chief Evans declined to say whether he thought that Hinton could now be charged in connection with the Cody shooting.

“We have identified and charged only one of the suspected shooters in that case at this point and it remains a very active and open investigation,” Chief Evans said. “We expect to bring this case to full closure eventually.”