The 16-year-old boy who allegedly shot and killed a classmate on his first day at a Maryland high school Friday has been arrested, police said Saturday.
Jaylen Rushawn Prince has been charged as an adult with murder, as well as first- and second-degree assault and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony/crime of violence, the Harford County Sheriff’s Office said.
The accused teenage killer was arrested at a nearby apartment complex just minutes after Friday’s deadly shooting at Joppatowne High School — and officers caught him trying to break into a home in a desperate attempt to hide from authorities.
What happened between Prince and his alleged victim, Warren Curtis Grant, 15, is still unclear, but police said the two boys knew each other.
Police say Prince fired a single shot into the boys’ restroom on the first floor following an altercation around 12:35 p.m. It was Prince’s first day at Joppatowne High School, where classes began Tuesday.
Students dragged the injured Grant down the hallway, and school nurses tended to him before he was airlifted to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, where he later died.
The prince fled the school but was taken into custody around 12:50 p.m. He was not identified until Saturday afternoon.
The young shooter was already known to law enforcement. Police could not say whether he had a criminal record, but said calls for help had involved Prince in the past.
“We have had over 10 incidents since 2022 where the suspect was either the victim, witness or suspect in Harford County Sheriff’s Office investigations,” officials said Friday night.
No firearms have yet been found.
The shooting comes just two days after 14-year-old Colt Gray allegedly opened fire at Apalachee High School in north Georgia, killing two students and two teachers and wounding nine others.
Colt and his father Colin Gray, who reportedly bought him the AR-15 rifle used in the massacre for Christmas, months after the boy was accused of threatening to shoot up a school. Both were arrested and charged with murder.
The couple made their first court appearance on Friday, where they learned they could spend the rest of their lives behind bars.
