Inset: Malik Miner (Tarrant County Jail). Background: A QuikTrip where a car struck by bullets stopped in Arlington, Tex. (Google Maps).
A Texas man is behind bars after a “targeted” shooting on a busy highway that left a pregnant woman dead, Lone Star State police say.
Malik Miner, 29, stands accused of one count of murder in the first degree, one count of deadly conduct, and three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, according to the Arlington Police Department.
The underlying incident occurred in early November along a stretch of Interstate 20 in Arlington, the third largest city in the sprawling Metroplex region of North Texas, police said in a press release.
On the day in question, Bre”Asia Johnson, 29, was traveling westbound toward Bowman Springs Road when the shots rang out.
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The driver of the car, Johnson’s boyfriend, pulled over at a QuikTrip gas station on Little Road to call 911. Both the driver and Johnson were struck by the bullets; two children in the car were not seriously injured.
Johnson was pronounced dead at the scene just before 8 p.m., her boyfriend was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment, police said.
Detectives later confirmed that Johnson, who was found unresponsive in the front passenger seat of her boyfriend’s car, was pregnant and that her unborn child had also been killed as a result of the shooting.
One of the children had also been struck by falling glass from one of the car’s shot out and shattered windows, according to an arrest warrant affidavit obtained by Dallas-based ABC affiliate WFAA.
A second vehicle was also hit by the gunfire, police say. That vehicle, however, is believed to be unrelated; those inside were uninjured.
A search of the highway turned up two different caliber shell casings used in the shooting, according to law enforcement.
In the ensuing investigation, police identified Miner as the suspect by way of witness interviews and surveillance footage.
“[D]etectives determined the shooting was targeted and not the result of road rage,” the police department alleges. “Through the course of their investigation, they learned that Mr. Miner was previously in a romantic relationship with Ms. Johnson and had been feuding with her current boyfriend, the 28-year-old man.”
Police eventually executed a search warrant on Miner’s residence and seized several items, including his cellphone, according to the police department. A review of the digital allegedly turned up prior communication between the defendant and Johnson’s boyfriend.
And there was also some tell-tale location data, police say.
“Detectives also compared cell phone location records from Mr. Miner’s phone and Ms. Johnson’s phone,” the press release goes on. “They not only placed Mr. Miner at the crime scene when the shooting occurred but also showed that his movements were nearly identical to Ms. Johnson’s movements in the minutes leading up to the shooting. The cell phone location records suggest that Mr. Minor followed the victims’ vehicle that night.”
Miner, for his part, declined to speak to law enforcement after his arrest on Thursday evening, police say.
