Prosecutors on Wednesday charged a gang member with the murder of 6-year-old Tiana Ricks, who was gunned down at a relative's home in Moreno Valley this month, authorities said.
Keandre Narkie Johnson, 21, was charged with murder, attempted murder and participation in a criminal street gang, according to a Riverside County District Attorney's office statement. The charges also carry special-circumstance allegations, which would lengthen his sentence if he is found guilty.
Riverside County sheriff's deputies arrested Johnson in Hemet about 4 p.m. Monday. Numerous tips came in after the shooting, leading detectives to Johnson, according to the statement.
On Sept. 7, Tiana Ricks was with her father, Tyrell Ricks, at a family celebration for a cousin who was going away to college. They went into their relative's open garage, where people were gathered, when two men stormed up the driveway and opened fire into the crowd.
Tyrell Ricks, 26, took a bullet to the pelvis. Tiana was fatally wounded.
The shooting was especially mysterious for the 26-year-old father who recently moved to California from the Midwest. Tyrell Ricks said he had no gang ties, and didn't know anyone outside of his family in Moreno Valley.
The young girl's fatal shooting shocked the region and prompted people on social giving websites, and rappers Snoop Lion and The Game, to donate money to her family to cover funeral costs.
Local
Get Los Angeles's latest local news on crime, entertainment, weather, schools, COVID, cost of living and more. Here's your go-to source for today's LA news.
The Game, whose name is Jayceon Terrell Taylor, said he read about the girl's death while in Australia and immediately felt moved to help.
"This very sad story hit me in a place nothing ever has," he wrote on Instagram.
More Southern California Stories:
