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An 8-year-old was shot and killed in Washington. Suspect turns himself in after a month on the run.

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Source: Federal Way police; Unsplash

May 16 2021, Published 9:07 a.m. ET

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A Washington fugitive turned himself in after months on the run, following an April shooting that claimed the life of an 8-year-old girl.

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Federal Way police detectives said Andre Marcelle Jimerson, 35, fired the shot that killed Royal'lee Wallace inside an apartment on April 25. The shooting occurred at an apartment complex in the 27900 block of Pacific Highway South, around 11:30 a.m. 

Detectives said the bullet was fired from inside the apartment and tore through three walls before hitting Royal'lee, according to the Associated Press.

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Initially, police arrested the child’s father after they claimed he told them he was alone in his apartment when his daughter was shot, according to Washington’s Most Wanted.

Police later learned there were two other people inside the apartment with her father at the time of the shooting.

Detectives interviewed her father and one of the other two people in the apartment. The dad was released from jail and the investigation shifted to Jimerson.

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“It was the father’s initial refusal to share this information with investigators and failure to identify the actual shooter that led to his arrest,” Cmdr. Kurt Schwan of Federal Way Police told The Federal Way Mirror.

While police said it is unclear who owns the gun and how it got to the apartment, Jimerson was reportedly waving the gun around while rapping along with the music when it went off his girlfriend told police.

Jimerson’s girlfriend drove Royal’lee and her father to St. Francis Hospital in Federal Way, according to the Seattle Times. Royal’lee was later taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, where she died the next day from a gunshot wound to the head.

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The girlfriend reportedly picked Jimerson up at the Federal Way apartment and took him to his mother’s home in Auburn, Washington. 

Police couldn’t find him in the weeks after Royal’lee’s death, and records showed he turned his phone off shortly after the shooting.

Jimerson eventually turned himself in at the Kent Police Department around 2:30 a.m. on May 11.

He was charged with first-degree manslaughter and second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm, Jimerson was booked into jail and bail was set at $100,000.

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