August 25, 2020 - 6:29 AM
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Police have arrested the man they say is responsible for a shooting at a Kentucky mall that killed one and wounded two others.
Xavier Hardin, 19, was charged Monday evening with murder and two counts of assault, Lexington police said in a statement.
The shooting happened Sunday afternoon outside a store in Fayette Mall, leading officers to evacuate the building as they searched it.
The victims included Kenneth Wayne Bottoms Jr., 17, who was pronounced dead at the University of Kentucky Medical Center shortly after the shooting, the Fayette County Coroner’s Office said.
The shooting appears to have followed a verbal altercation between Bottoms, Hardin and others, police said in a statement.
The two who were wounded in the shooting are believed to be uninvolved bystanders, police said. A 41-year-old man and 17-year-old girl suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
Two others associated with Bottoms were arrested Monday and charged with tampering with evidence, police said. Nasir Lyons and Cion Townsend, both 18, were at the mall at the time of the shooting, police said. Both men were seen removing evidence from Bottoms' body and then running away, news outlets reported, citing arrest citations.
It was not immediately clear if any of those charged have attorneys.
News from © The Associated Press, 2020