Inset: Malik Miner (Tarrant County Jail). Background: A QuikTrip where a car struck by bullets stopped in Arlington, Tex. (Google Maps).
A man from Texas finds himself in custody following a deliberate shooting on a bustling highway that resulted in the tragic death of a pregnant woman, authorities in the Lone Star State report.
Malik Miner, age 29, faces charges including first-degree murder, deadly conduct, and three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, as detailed by the Arlington Police Department.
The incident unfolded in early November along a section of Interstate 20 in Arlington, a major city within the expansive Metroplex area of North Texas, as stated in a press release from the police.
On that fateful day, Bre’Asia Johnson, also 29, was headed west on the highway near Bowman Springs Road when gunfire erupted.
After the shooting, Johnson’s boyfriend, who was driving the vehicle, pulled over at a QuikTrip gas station on Little Road to contact emergency services. Both he and Johnson sustained gunshot wounds, though two children in the car escaped serious harm.
Tragically, Johnson was declared dead at the scene just before 8 p.m., while her boyfriend was transported to a local hospital for medical care, according to police reports.
Detectives later confirmed that Johnson, who was found unresponsive in the front passenger seat of her boyfriend’s car, was pregnant and that her unborn child had also been killed as a result of the shooting.
One of the children had also been struck by falling glass from one of the car’s shot out and shattered windows, according to an arrest warrant affidavit obtained by Dallas-based ABC affiliate WFAA.
A second vehicle was also hit by the gunfire, police say. That vehicle, however, is believed to be unrelated; those inside were uninjured.
A search of the highway turned up two different caliber shell casings used in the shooting, according to law enforcement.
In the ensuing investigation, police identified Miner as the suspect by way of witness interviews and surveillance footage.
“[D]etectives determined the shooting was targeted and not the result of road rage,” the police department alleges. “Through the course of their investigation, they learned that Mr. Miner was previously in a romantic relationship with Ms. Johnson and had been feuding with her current boyfriend, the 28-year-old man.”
Police eventually executed a search warrant on Miner’s residence and seized several items, including his cellphone, according to the police department. A review of the digital allegedly turned up prior communication between the defendant and Johnson’s boyfriend.
And there was also some tell-tale location data, police say.
“Detectives also compared cell phone location records from Mr. Miner’s phone and Ms. Johnson’s phone,” the press release goes on. “They not only placed Mr. Miner at the crime scene when the shooting occurred but also showed that his movements were nearly identical to Ms. Johnson’s movements in the minutes leading up to the shooting. The cell phone location records suggest that Mr. Minor followed the victims’ vehicle that night.”
Miner, for his part, declined to speak to law enforcement after his arrest on Thursday evening, police say.
