3 days ago
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An Ohio father who police suspect murdered his 13-year-old daughter and left her body in an abandoned building was shot and arrested after allegedly pulling a gun on a SWAT team.
Police in Toledo, Ohio, were tracking Darnell Jones, 33, after they obtained an arrest warrant for him in connection with the death of his 13-year-old daughter, Keimani Latigue.
Latigue was found dead on Monday, just about a week after she disappeared on March 18, the Toledo Blade reports.
Toledo police began to suspect Jones after he allegedly gave "inconsistent statements" during his interviews with investigators. He was also allegedly the last known person to be seen with Latigue, according to a probable cause affidavit.
According to police, Jones left the Toledo area and drove several hours to Columbus, the state capital.
Toledo police issued an arrest warrant for Jones on abduction charges on Sunday, noting that he was the last person seen with the girl, and issued an alert for any officers who spotted the man to detain him. The following day, police found Keimani’s body.
A SWAT team in Columbus — approximately two and a half hours away — located Jones's car in the city and staked out his location overnight between Monday and Tuesday, according to the Toledo Blade.
When Jones did not return, the SWAT officers thought Jones had potentially abandoned the vehicle and began searching street by street for him.
“They just started searching. Every street, every alley, and then one of the SWAT officers saw a man matching his description,” Brian Steel, the president of the Fraternal Order of Police Capital City Lodge 9, told the outlet.
When SWAT officers approached Jones, he allegedly pulled a gun on them and was shot.
According to Steel, the SWAT team had a medic who immediately went to work treating Jones. He was last reported in stable condition and receiving treatment at a hospital in the Columbus area.
Jones has been charged with felonious assault and was arraigned this morning in Franklin County Municipal Court.
A motive for the alleged murder has not been publicly revealed.
The Lucas County Coroner's Office released Keimani's cause of death on Tuesday.
According to the coroner, the girl died as a result of "multiple incised wounds of the neck. Her death was ruled a homicide.
She was found on the second floor of an abandoned building on Miami Street. The building is slated for demolition sometime in the next few months.
Keimani reportedly was alone at her grandmother's home the night she went missing. She called Jones, who had just dropped her off at the house, around 11:30pm because she thought someone was trying to break into the house.
Jones returned to the house and reportedly stayed with Keimani until early Tuesday morning, Tiara Kasten, Keimani's mother, told the Blade.
Keimani did not show up to school the following day, which prompted her grandmother, Dorthy Latigue, to report her missing. She tried to call the girl, but her phone reportedly went straight to voicemail.
