One man died and another was arrested after a shooting in Lakewood last month turned fatal, police said.
Adrian Slaughter, 23, was arrested Wednesday and charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of 49-year-old Joshua Green, according to a from the Lakewood Police Department.
Lakewood officers responded at about 10:15 p.m. on Aug. 28 to reports of a shooting near Vance Street and W. 13th Avenue, police said in the release.
The shooting happened on a pedestrian path north of the Regional Transportation District light rail tracks and east of the Lakewood-Wadsworth station, according to Slaughter’s arrest affidavit.
When officers arrived, they found Green suffering from a gunshot wound to his abdomen and right arm, the arrest affidavit stated. Paramedics took Green to the hospital, where he later died from his injuries.
An unknown suspect, later identified as Slaughter, was spotted running from the area, according to the affidavit.
Surveillance video showed the suspect sitting down next to a fence on the pedestrian path and talking to people. At about 10:15 p.m., he got up, walked over to Green and shot him from feet away, the affidavit stated.
The suspect then immediately fled north on Vance while roughly a dozen others hanging out on the path scattered.
Police identified Slaughter as the suspect based on witness descriptions and his previous encounters with the Lakewood Police Department for minor crimes, like shoplifting, according to court documents. Investigators matched Slaughter to the descriptions by using photo and video evidence from those cases, where the man’s tattoos are visible.
DNA on a beanie believed to be discarded by the shooter also matched with Slaughter, police said.
Green died from his injuries on Aug. 31, and a warrant was issued for Slaughter’s arrest on Sept. 2, according to court records.
Slaughter was arrested three weeks after the shooting and taken to the Jefferson County Detention Center. His next court date had not yet been scheduled as of Thursday.
This is a developing story and may be updated.
