AKRON, Ohio — A 61-year-old man has been arrested and charged for a 2020 shooting that killed a 1-year-old baby and injured two adults in Akron.
According to Akron Police, Phillip Mendoza Jr. has been charged with murder and four counts of felonious assault after being taken into custody at a residence located in the 100 block of Edwards Ave. on Thursday. He has been booked into the Summit County Jail.
Mendoza's arrest comes more than two years after the shooting in the 1200 block of 5th Ave. that occurred on Aug. 2, 2020. The shooting resulted in the death of 1-year-old Tyree Halsell and a man and woman (ages 48 and 47) suffering non-life-threatening injuries after being shot in the lower extremities.
"Since the day of the shooting, investigators have actively pursued all leads and exhausted all the resources available to them to determine the individual(s) responsible for the senseless murder of Tyree Halsell," Akron Police said in a statement announcing Mendoza's arrest. "New information was presented to detectives, and they were optimistic it would be what was needed to confirm the identity of the shooter."
Editor's note: this story includes videos from the original 2020 report on the shooting.
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