[UPDATE WITH ARREST INFO] There’s a lot of mourning in the world of college football as Auburn redshirt Jakell Mitchell was murdered Sunday morning at an apartment complex near the Auburn University campus. In fact, it’s the same Auburn apartment complex where former Auburn football players Ed Christian and Ladarious Phillips were killed (and other wounded) in a 2012 shooting. The apartment complex changed its name after those murders.
The police responded to a call at 12:25 on Sunday morning to the Tiger Lodge complex, where the body of 18-year-old Mitchell was discovered. He was pronounced dead at a hospital. Obviously, the details of the shooting are still waiting to be discovered, but the national mourning began overnight via Twitter.
UPDATE: Markale Hart, 22 has been arrested and charged with the murder of Jakell Mitchell–as reported by Captain Lorenza Dorsey of the Auburn Police Division . Here’s the official statement, with Hart now in the Lee County jail and eligible for $150,000 bond:
On Sunday, December 14, 2014 the Auburn Police Division arrested Markale Deandra Hart, age 22 of Camp Hill on a felony warrant charging him with murder.
The arrest is the result of an investigation into an early morning shooting that occurred at Tiger Lodge Apartments, located in the 200 block of West Long Leaf Drive. Jakell Lenard Mitchell, age 18 from Opelika was shot and later died at EAMC Emergency Room as a result of multiple gunshot injuries to the chest that he sustained in the incident.
An investigation into the shooting was immediately initiated by the Auburn Police Division and as a result, Hart was developed as a suspect. Auburn Detectives traveled to Dadeville and with the assistance of the Tallapoosa County Sheriff Department and Jackson Gap Police, were able to locate Hart and take him into custody. The case remains under investigation by the Auburn Police Division and the State Medical Examiner’s Office. No additional arrests are anticipated.
