Second club shooter arrested

Published 4:27 pm Monday, October 10, 2011

Selma Police have taken 29-year-old John C. Brown Jr. into custody in connection with the early Friday morning shooting at the downtown Selma club, 12th Stone.

Brown, from Selma, joins 19-year-old DeAndre Fuller, as the two shooters identified by witnesses who opened fire into the crowded club around 1:30 a.m. Friday, killing one and injuring four others.

“During the investigation, witnesses led us to a second shooter — a Mr. Brown — who also fired shots into the club that morning,” Selma Chief of Police William T. Riley said. “We believe now that he joined Mr. Fuller in firing shots into the crowded club, in what turned out to be a tragic and fatal event.”

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Brown was taken into custody Monday and has been charged with one count of murder and four counts of attempted murder. He has been placed in the Dallas County Jail without bond. These are the same charges currently levied against Fuller, who is scheduled to face District Judge Bob Armstrong Tuesday afternoon for an initial bond hearing. It is unclear yet whether or not Brown will also face Armstrong.

Riley said police have also come into possession of one of the handguns believed used in the shooting, but refused to give full details of the forensic evidence currently collected in connection with the case.

“In interviewing Mr. Brown, he made some statements that placed him at the club that night and outside the club at the time of the shooting,” Riley said.

In earlier reports, investigators said DeAndre was involved in an altercation inside the club, left and went into the parking lot, where he retrieved a weapon. He then re-entered the club and began firing “indiscriminately” into the crowd.

Riley said reports also have Brown firing outside of the club into the club at the time of the panic.

“The two suspects know each other, they are friends,” Riley said of the connection between the two suspects. He did not say whether or not Brown was involved in the original altercation inside the club.

The one fatal victim in the shooting proved to be DeAndre’s 21-year-old sister, Levisha Fuller. She is Selma’s fifth murder victim of the year and the first since April.

“Bullets don’t know their victims,” Riley said Friday. “When you fire into a crowd indiscriminately, this is the type of thing that happens.”

Four other victims were also shot, with the worst wounds inflicted upon an unidentified male victim who was struck in the chest. Riley said that victim remains “day-to-day” in serious condition.