19-year-old captured in Huntsville for Monday murder

Published 10:13 pm Friday, July 7, 2017

A second capital murder suspect wanted for the drive-by shooting death of a 17-year-old Ellwood student Monday has been captured in Huntsville.

Mitchell Williams, 19, was arrested after a capital murder warrant was issued by the Selma Police Department Wednesday. Williams is the second suspect arrested. He and 16-year-old Markel Collins have been charged with capital murder in the death of Christopher Devon Lee II.

According to the Huntsville Police Department, Williams was arrested by agents with the U.S. Marshals Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Task Force and members of the Huntsville Police Department’s SWAT.

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Williams was taken into custody Thursday night without incident at a home on the 4700 block of Broadmeadow Lane in Huntsville. Details on Williams’ ties to Huntsville have not been released at this time.

Collins was arrested Monday just hours after the shooting and charged with capital murder. He was arraigned in Dallas County Court Wednesday and appointed an attorney.

While Williams’ alleged role in the fatal drive-by has not been revealed, a probable cause warrant read Wednesday in court by Judge Collins Pettaway said witnesses identified Markel Collins as the driver of the vehicle.

Williams is expected to be extradited to Selma in the coming days.

According to Lt. Tory Neely with the Selma Police Department, Lee was standing on the front porch of a home on the 1500 block of Washington Street Monday just before noon when a car drove by and fired several shots. Lee died after being struck several times.

“He was outside with several other subjects around the front of the house in the porch area. From what we understand, he tried to get into the house, but he didn’t make it,” Neely said Monday.

Multiple ambulances responded to the scene, but Lee could not be revived. No one else was injured in the shooting.

Neely said the fatal shooting is believed to be an act of retaliation from an earlier shooting.

The same house Lee was shot and killed at late Monday morning was shot up several hours earlier around 3 a.m. A home on Matthew Lane, which is where Collins lives according to court records, was shot up around 10:40 a.m.

No one was injured in either of those shootings, but 34-year-old Carlos Hunter was arrested for the Matthew Lane shooting and charged with discharging a firearm into an occupied dwelling.

Two other suspects are still wanted for capital murder – 23-year-old Jamarius Shaw and 18-year-old Ceddarius Williams.

Dallas County District Attorney Michael Jackson said the back and forth shootings are believed to be gang-related.

“You have a rivalry between the DTE group and the Washington Street gang,” Jackson said Wednesday.

Lee was a star athlete at Ellwood Christian Academy. He helped the basketball team make school history last season by helping the Eagles make it to the finals of the Central Regional of the Alabama High School Athletic Association’s basketball playoffs.

Funeral arrangements for Lee have not been finalized.

Anyone with information on the whereabouts of the remaining two suspects is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-866-442-7463, the SPD Criminal Investigation Division at (334) 874-2125 or the secret witness line at (334) 874-2190.