CINCINNATI – Neighbors are getting credit for helping to identify and arrest a third suspect in the fatal shooting of 9-year-old girl a year and a half ago.
"The community is in an uproar over all the shootings and homicides happening in our city,” said Mitch Morris, who directs the Phoenix Program for Cincinnati Works. “They're working close - the police and community partnership - and trying to put a stop to this because it's definitely cancer on our city,."
The community continues to keep Alexandrea Thompson’s memory alive. Just a few blocks away from where Alexandrea was killed along Burnet Avenue, there’s a park bench built as a memorial to her.
Chyanne Daniels, 21, is the latest person to be arrested and charged in the 9-year-old's murder. Daniels joins Azuriah Hoskins Jr., and Ke'von Smith, both 19, who police say were also involved in the killing on Jan. 18, 2017
Police say two armed men entered Alexandrea's home and began shooting. Alexandrea hid behind her father, but bullets passed through him and into her.
tt took a year before the first pair was arrested.
"You can't help but to think about the kids that's on both sides - the kids that committed this horrible crime and then the one that we lost unfortunately," Morris said.
Morris said one of the goals of the Phoenix Program is to foster intervention and prevention.
"When you run out there when someone is dead, that's too late. The mission has failed,’’ Morris said. “So we have to get on a mission before it happens."
Daniels is also charged with murdering Donshae Gentry last August. She remains in the Hamilton County jail held on $2 million bond covering both cases.
