Man charged with murder in 2016 death of toddler
MINNEAPOLIS — Nearly three years after a Minneapolis toddler was sH๏τ and killed while in his father’s van, murder charges have been filed.
Chris Maurice Welch, 34, is charged with second-degree murder in the shooting that killed 2-year-old Le’Vonte King Jason Jones. Although Welch was considered the prime suspect and arrested back in 2016, prosecutors couldn’t move the case forward because they said they didn’t have enough evidence at the time.
On Monday, Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman announced that had changed, now that at least seven witnesses have cooperated with police, according to a probable cause statement.
“We now have that evidence,” Freeman said. “And we have charged that case.”
On July 8, police responded to North Memorial Medical Center in response to a shooting. Officers learned that a 2-year-old – Le’Vonte – had been sH๏τ in the chest and killed, and a 1-year-old had been sH๏τ in the leg and survived.
Police located the father, Melvonte Lee Peterson, at the hospital. There were two bullet holes in his van, which had been involved in a shooting at the intersection of Penn and Lowry Avenues North minutes before it arrived at the hospital.
Police obtained video of a black Chevrolet Impala stopped at the intersection when Peterson’s van pulled up alongside it. The complaint states that sH๏τ spotter equipment detected two gun sH๏τs, and then video shows the van pulling away and jumping the curb. After a brief pause, nine more sH๏τs are fired as the van turns onto Penn, and the Impala drives away on Lowry.
At a Monday news conference, Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo said, “We know that violence in any case affects everyone. This case, however, involved the most vulnerable of our community and that’s our children. When children are sH๏τ and killed our entire city mourns.”
Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman also spoke at the news conference, calling the shooting “a tragedy that we all felt.”
He said it was a difficult case to put together, and that Welch was their prime suspect but they didn’t previously have enough evidence to charge him.
“Investigators worked very hard to gain the confidence of the witnesses and the family, and finally different pieces began to fall together,” Freeman said.
He said Welch was likely attempting to shoot Peterson, but hit the children instead.
“He’s just as culpable for killing the child even though he may have been aiming at someone else,” he said.
Pastor Danny Givens, a cousin of the family, said relatives learned about the murder charge just hours after prosecutors filed it today.
“It’s a lot to process, as you can imagine,” he said. “At points, it may have seemed hopeless. But for a mother to lose a child, you never give up hope.”
The mother, Leshae Jones, spoke briefly after the county attorney announced charges. She described her son, King, as “happy, playful, smart, (and) intelligent.”
“Makes me feel like I got some justice,” she said.
Welch is currently in federal prison in Illinois, serving 17 years for a firearms offense with a long criminal record. Prosecutors plan to bring him back to Minnesota to face this latest murder charge.
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It’s been nearly three years since Le’Vonte King Jason Jones was sH๏τ in the chest and killed. He was 2. MINNEAPOLIS — Nearly three years after a…