Two teenage boys were arrested for their alleged involvement in the shooting deaths of a Detroit family, including a 5-year-old child.
The boys, 16 and 17, were located on Monday and taken into custody, police said at a news conference Tuesday. They have not been formally charged and are being held at a youth home.
The bodies of 5-year-old Caleb Harris, his mother, Lashon Marshall, and her boyfriend, Aaron Benson, were found Sunday evening in a home on Evergreen Road.
Police said a concerned relative went to the home around 5 p.m. because they had not heard from the family. All three victims had been shot, according to authorities.
Tips immediately began pouring in from the community which led investigators to the teens. The teenagers were "known to the victims," authorities said, without providing a motive for the shootings.
Detroit Police Commander Michael McGinnis said Caleb was close to celebrating his 6th birthday. He said his death was "unimaginable."
"I imagine the family was probably prepping for a birthday celebration and tragically their plans have changed," he said.
Chief James White said the arrests bring some type of closure to the family but "it certainly doesn't bring back these victims and this 5-year-old."
"It's just inexcusable for anyone to get, whatever the issue was, to get that outraged with whomever they were having conflict with to bring a baby into this and kill them," he said.
Caleb's grandmother, Shalesa Floyd, said the boy's father lives out of state and is "in turmoil."
"My son is falling apart," she said in a phone interview Tuesday. "I'm hurting deep."
Floyd said her son had been trying to get custody of Caleb and she pointed the finger at Children's Protective Services for not doing more. A spokesperson for the agency could not be reached Tuesday.
"CPS has a devoted job to do for these children and young adults to look after the welfare of these children and where they go," she said. "Make sure things are right before you just say we'll leave him over here. That’s not right for the child, because had it been, my grandson would not be getting ready to be buried at 5 years old."