Selma police arrested Selma resident Thaddeus Aaron, 29, on Monday in connection with an ongoing investigation into the Oct. 20 shooting death of Helen Roper.

Aaron is charged with one count capital murder and one count assault first degree. He’s being held at the Dallas County Jail with no bond.

According to Selma Police Chief William T. Riley, Aaron admitted to being involved in Roper’s shooting, but she was not the intended target.

“He did acknowledge to the attack that he was involved, and actually was involved in and was actually the shooter of that incident,” said Riley. “From the information that we obtained from Mr. Aaron, she was not the target of his. It appeared to be that he may have been at the wrong residence, but she was not the intended target.”

Roper’s shooting was the climax of a violent night in Selma that saw three shootings — two of which took place at Roper’s residence — and resulted the wounding of two men and the death of one woman.

The first shooting occurred at approximately 9:15 p.m. at the Selma Square apartment complex on Woodrow Avenue. The victim was Aaron’s nephew, Joshua Clark.

“I had just walked up across the street and two men approached me,” said Clark. “One tried to run my pocket, and as I was trying to stop one from running my pocket, I was just shot. It happened before I knew it.”

Clark was shot under his left arm through the rib cage. The bullet passed through his right side, later causing both lungs to collapse. Clark returned home on Monday from Baptist Medical Center South in Montgomery.

Thaddeus Aaron was not in the area at the time of Clark’s shooting, but his mother, Patricia Aaron, was.

“Something just kept urging me to go to the window,” said Aaron. “I didn’t feel good about it but they shoot out here so much and I’ve been trying to get my family away from here. It’s awful out here. I went down over to Selma Square, and my grandson was laying face down. It was just like a nightmare. It was really a nightmare.”

According to his mother, Thaddeus met the family at the emergency room at Vaughn Regional Medical center before his nephew was transferred to the Montgomery hospital. Thaddeus’ mother said her son was beside himself with grief.

“He said, ‘Mama, let’s pray,’” said the woman. “There was a lot of people out here talking about Josh telling anybody ‘It’s not fair. The person needs to be dealt with.’ I never knew what happened after that because I told my child ‘vengeance is the Lord’s. It’s not ours.’”

A short while later according to Patricia Aaron, Thaddeus Aaron’s girlfriend, Joy, came by and picked him up.

“If you’re the right type of person, you don’t carry anybody anywhere when everything’s out of focus, you’re out of mind, you don’t know what you’re doing, you don’t know what you’re saying, you want vengeance,” said Patricia Aaron. “We don’t want vengeance at all. All I wanted was for him to be calm.”

Shots were fired at Roper’s residence on Voeglin Avenue at 9:50 p.m. that same night, resulting in the wounding of a male inside. At 11 p.m., Roper and her brother, Marvin Maul, were talking outside her home when someone shot at them from a car. Roper was shot in the stomach and a bullet grazed Maul’s arm.

Patricia Aaron’s daughter called to tell her police were looking for Thaddeus, and she got in touch with him. He denied wrongdoing. She remains in disbelief that he could be involved in the shooting, and at the same time Patricia Aaron is in despair over the Ropers’ loss.

“I want to talk to the family. My child is not a mass murderer. He wouldn’t hurt anybody,” said Aaron. “I’m hurting deep, but I’m hurting twice. I don’t know what they’re going to do with my baby. He don’t know what they’re going to do with him.”

The link between the shootings on Woodrow and Voeglin remains under investigation by Selma police.

“We’re continuing the investigation to see what connection this may have had to a previous shooting at Selma Square Apartments,” said Riley. “We are looking to see if Mr. Aaron had any particular connection to that shooting as well. Right now, there is no evidence to indicate that he was involved in that.”