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WEST VALLEY CITY — Two documented gang members, including a 17-year-old boy, have been arrested in Nebraska in connection with the shooting death of a 17-year-old Judge Memorial Catholic High School student last month.
Prosecutors believe the victim "was an innocent bystander" and the shots in a West Valley parking lot were meant for someone else in the victim's car, according to charging documents.
Mare Biel, 18, of Glendale, Arizona, and Bevan Kuajian, 17, of West Valley City, were both charged on Friday in 3rd District Court with murder, a first-degree felony; discharge of a firearm causing serious injury and obstruction of justice, second-degree felonies; and eight counts of illegal discharge of a firearm, a third-degree felony.
The charging documents were originally filed under seal until Biel and Kuajian could be located and arrested. Kuajian was 16 at the time of the shooting.
The two are charged with shooting and killing Nuer Deng, a student at Judge Memorial and a member of the basketball team, who was sitting in the back of a car on July 13.
On that day, Deng and his friends were in the parking lot at Winco, 2592 S. 5600 West, looking at their phones, when an Infiniti pulled up behind them.
"The passenger of the Infiniti rolled down his window, and a black handgun came out. (A passenger) heard 'three or four' gunshots, and he could see the flash as the gun was firing," according to charging documents.
Nine shell casings were recovered at the scene. The victims sped away, but the other two people in the car could see Deng was bleeding from his chest.
"I got shot," Deng told the others, according to the charges.
Deng died shortly after arriving at a local hospital.
Police checked the Snapchat account of one of the other occupants of the vehicle and discovered messages that indicated he may have known the identity of the shooter, according to the charges.
"(He) stated that Kuajian was angry with him because of an ex-girlfriend. (He) stated that Kuajian and Mare Biel are cousins and are usually with each other," the charges state.
The man further told detectives he had gotten into an argument with Kuajian and Biel about a year ago and tried to apologize, but he did not accept their apology, according to court documents. The charges indicate that Kuajian and Biel are from a tribe in Sudan, and were upset with Deng's friend for hanging out with members of another Sudan tribe.
"(He) stated that his issue has mainly been with Kuajian and that Kuajian has been telling people that he was going to rob (Deng's friend). According to (the friend), he and Kuajian had fought each other several times since they stopped being friends. (He) reported that in the weeks leading up to the homicide, Biel had started to make additional threats to rob and beat up (Deng's friend)," the charges state.
Detectives also learned that Kuajian and Biel are members of a rap group and "in multiple music videos posted to the public on YouTube, (they) are seen with handguns, rifles, money and what appears to be marijuana in the videos," the charges say.
After the shooting, members of the group posted on their social media pages that they were "missing" Kuajian and Biel, as no one had heard from them.
Detectives received information that Kuajian and Biel had fled to Nebraska. The Douglas County Sheriff's Office in Nebraska was notified by West Valley police the duo may be in the Omaha area, according to a statement released Thursday by the sheriff's office. The sheriff's SWAT team, along with an Omaha police SWAT team, and the U.S. Marshal's Fugitive Task Force served a warrant at the residence and Kuajian and Biel were arrested without incident.
Police also learned the Infiniti the suspected gunmen was in had recently purchased and "is linked to other drive-by shootings in the valley," the charges state.
