SHELBY COUNTY, Texas (KTRE) - Three people have been arrested and a fourth arrest is planned in connection with the fatal shooting of a Shelby County man over the weekend, the Shelby County District Attorney’s Office said.
JaMichael Phillips, 36, died Saturday morning in what is described by Shelby County District Attorney Karren Price as an “execution.”
Colby Eli Lister, 19; Deterion Alexander, 17; and Rico Rose, 20, all of Lufkin, have been arrested in connection with the shooting, with charges to be announced. Price said a fourth suspect had yet to be arrested.
Price, in a press release, said officers from the sheriff’s office were called around 9:30 a.m. to Phillips’s home and found him dead from a gunshot to the back of his head.
Price says further evidence shows the shot had been fired by displacing an air conditioner in Phillips’s bedroom window, shoving it aside and firing from the outside as Phillips tried to leave the room.
Investigators with the sheriff’s office and Texas Rangers were able to get video evidence from the neighborhood and businesses to track the vehicle in which the homicide suspects were see leaving the scene, Price said.
Four suspects were identified “as assailants in what can only be described as an execution,” Price said, adding the suspects are directly associated with or associated with others involved in gang activity in and around Angelina County. Price said one of the four suspects has direct familial connections to Shelby County.
After the shooting, Price said the four suspects fled to the Houston area. Investigators found the apartment building they were in, with a SWAT team arresting two suspects, Lister and Alexander, on Monday. They were taken back to Shelby County on Tuesday and remain in custody.
Price said Rose was arrested Wednesday morning by the Texas Rangers, Price said.
“The motive for this crime appears to be robbery, which failed because they could not gain entry to the home,” Price said. “It is also most certainly related to gang activity south of us.”
Price said the fourth suspect would be arrested soon.
“Once the evidence establishes who did what and when, we will decide how to charge them, but rest assured, the people involved will be held accountable and the person or persons directly responsible for the death of this young man will be prosecuted for murder,” Price said.