ST PAUL, Minn. — Based on the turnout at Markee Jones' vigil Sunday evening, it was clear Markee is loved. Dozens of people gathered at the 200 block of Stinson Street in St. Paul holding blue and silver balloons.
"He always brought out positivity of anything," Markee's cousin Chyarm Hill said. "Whether if anyone was mad, he would bring out the light to that, and it's really going to hurt not seeing him at my grandmother's house anymore."
St. Paul police say they responded to the 200 block of Stinson Street early Saturday morning for a juvenile who had been shot. There they found a boy, later identified by his family as 12-year-old Markee Jones. Markee was taken to the hospital where he later died.
Police eventually took a 14-year-old boy into custody. Markee's family said that the 14-year-old is Markee's brother.
The house where Markee was shot was his grandmother's house. Markee's great-aunt Marilyn Hill said the house was a safe one, and she knows there were no weapons inside in the beginning.
"It's just sad that this person left that piece in their house, and I just feel that if he knows he's wrong – why don't he come through and be accountable for his mistake," she said. "That was not right, to come into my sister's house when she's gone and leave that arm, and not put that arm in safety and have that bullet in that gun."
Hill said she knows the shooting was an accident, and said that she thinks the boys might have been playing with the gun they came across.
"You can't charge a child for something he's not really responsible of," Hill added. She said she wants an adult to take responsibility for bringing the firearm into the home.
"That gun does not belong here, it wasn't supposed to be here," Markee's uncle Martez Hill said.
"And being accountable – he left that gun, unsafe, instead of putting it in a safe, with bullets in it," Marilyn added. "It's called remove the chamber. I really can't believe what's going on, it's like a double jeopardy to me."
Marilyn, along with several other family members, is asking for the 14-year-old to be released from custody. Currently, no charges have been filed against him, but KARE 11 will update when more information becomes available.
A GoFundMe has been set up to help the family with funeral expenses.
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