20-year-old wanted in Jefferson County shooting that killed 2 teens nabbed after months on the run
A 20-year-old wanted in a December shooting that killed two people, including a 13-year-old boy, is now in custody.
The U.S. Marshal’s Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Task Force and Jefferson County sheriff’s deputies arrested Leon Walker Jr. Wednesday afternoon on Lanewood Drive in Birmingham.
Authorities said Walker initially refused to surrender. Task force officials called a family member of Walker, and he came out without further incident.
He was booked into the Jefferson County Jail about 5 p.m.
Walker is already awaiting trial for a 2022 shooting that left his 3-year-old sister injured.
Walker is charged with two counts of capital murder in the killings of Johnathan Keith Cottingham, 13, of Forestdale, and Louis Craig IV, 19, of Birmingham. He is also charged with attempted murder for a 15-year-old boy was in the car with the slain victims but escaped injury.
The warrants against Walker were obtained Dec. 18, 2023. Authorities have been searching for him since then.
The deadly shooting happened just before 8 p.m. on Dec. 11. Jefferson County sheriff’s deputies responded to a call of shots fire in the 200 block of Chickasaw Drive near Forestdale.
Tamir Freeman, 23, of Easton, is shown in a photo provided Thursday, Jan. 11, 2024, by Easton police in relation to attempted homicide and related charges filed against Freeman in a shooting Monday Dec. 11, 2023, in the 200 block of Northampton Street in the city, in the area of the Easton Winter Village skating rink, shown here in a photo of the police investigation that night.Courtesy/Tim Wynkoop file photos | For lehighvalleylive.com
Jefferson County sheriff’s deputies are investigating a Dec. 11, 2023, shooting that left two people dead.(Contributed)
When they arrived, they found a vehicle had crashed into several other parked vehicles in the parking lot of an apartment complex, sheriff’s Lt. Joni Money previously said.
Cottingham and Craig were found unresponsive inside the vehicle. Both were pronounced dead on the scene at 8:19 p.m.
Money said the third teen, who was uninjured, ran to a nearby residence for help.
A motive has not been disclosed but authorities said the suspect knew the victims.
Cottingham was a sixth grader at Minor Middle School.
“He had his whole life ahead of him, and it is heartbreaking to lose someone so young to an act of violence,’’ Jefferson County schools superintendent Walter Gonsoulin said in a prepared statement.
“His family, his friends, and his teachers are all in my prayers today. I also pray the person responsible will be brought to justice quickly.”
Walker is charged with aggravated child abuse in the 2022 incident that left his younger sister injured by gunfire.
In that incident, sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to Tower Drive on a report of a child shot. They arrived to find the girl suffering from a gunshot wound to the stomach area.
Authorities said the girl had been left in the care of her brother, Leon Walker Jr. That case has been over to a grand jury for indictment consideration.
Walker will be held without bond on the capital murder charges.