STERLING, VA – A teenage boy authorities say is accused of murder was apprehended at Dulles International Airport in October while trying to board an international flight, U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced.
According to a CBP release, the 16-year-old was arrested on Oct. 23 while attempting to travel to Ethiopia. The boy is one of two minors charged in the murder of 68-year-old Pamela Shanks of Gastonia, NC, on Oct. 19.
According to the Gastonia Police Department, Shanks was shot while on her porch in her apartment complex. She appears to have been killed by accident: police say she was not the target of gun violence.
The 16-year-old arrested at Dulles is charged with homicide-willful kill-gun, first-degree murder, discharge of a weapon into an occupied property and possession of a handgun by a minor, according to Gastonia police.
CBP says officers identified the boy as a subject of a Gastonia Police Department warrant in the National Crime Information Center while conducting routine vetting of passengers heading overseas. NCIC is a centralized database that shares information among law enforcement agencies.
The boy was heading to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, CBP says. Agents notified his family of his arrest and turned him over to Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Police officers.
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