Harvey police on Friday said the city’s “most wanted criminal” has been arrested in Chicago more than a month after he allegedly killed a teen and wounded the teen’s mother in a shooting at a gas station.
Police said Earl Truss was arrested Thursday night while detectives and the U.S. Marshall followed up on tips given to the department.
Truss is accused of fatally shooting a 17-year-old boy and wounded the boy’s mother after opening fire in a crowded gas station in the southern suburb on May 30.
The slain teen, identified as 17-year-old Juwan Benson, was pronounced dead at the scene, authorities said. His mother, Shieka Coleman, was taken in critical condition to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn.
"He took his last breath and he was gone. My daughter was trying to ease her way over to him but she couldn't make it to her son," Coleman's mother, Shirley Coleman, said through tears on Monday.
Witnesses at the scene told police that Benson got into an argument with Truss at the entrance of the gas station just prior to the shooting.
"This was not a random act on the gas station,” said Harvey police spokesman Sean Howard. "We think these individuals may have been targeted by the shooter.”
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Benson's brother, Edward McGee, said the shooting may have stemmed from a disagreement about a female.
"The citizens of Harvey can rest easier now that this dangerous criminal is now in custody,” Harvey police spokesman Sean Howard said in a statement. “The family of Juwan Benson as well as his mother all deserve justice. The Harvey Police Department never wavered in our goal to apprehend Earl Truss.”
Police said first-degree murder charges are pending.
