A Kansas man was arrested practically seven years after police say he fatally shot a 15-year-old refugee from Myanmar in an tried theft at a laundromat the place {the teenager} labored, police in Kansas Metropolis introduced Thursday.
Luis Samano, 24, is charged with homicide and tried aggravated theft within the loss of life of highschool pupil December Htoo.
A co-worker discovered Htoo lifeless on the morning of Nov. 18, 2017, inside Kansas Metropolis’s Maple Hill Laundromat, in keeping with NBC affiliate KSHB.
Htoo was mendacity face up subsequent to a washer with a number of gunshot wounds, a police spokesperson informed ABC Information on the time. There have been no indicators of compelled entry, no money was stolen, and nothing had been damaged on the scene.
Htoo’s case would stay chilly till September 2021, when police recovered a gun utilized in his killing throughout a narcotics visitors cease. It went chilly once more till Might of this yr, when detectives obtained new info via interviews and reexamination of surveillance footage.
Authorities have been finally led to Samano, who was 17 years outdated on the time of Htoo’s loss of life. He has been in jail since 2019 for an unrelated arson conviction.
Htoo had arrived in america when he was simply 6 years outdated. Say Htoonay, Htoo’s sister, informed ABC Information that he was a tough employee who joined his highschool’s wrestling crew and choir and aspired to change into a health care provider.
In a Thursday assertion, Htoo’s household mentioned he’s deeply missed by everybody who knew him.
“We perceive it’s fairly laborious to get chilly circumstances solved,” the assertion learn. “In our tradition, we had by no means skilled one thing like this as a result of our Karen group was pretty new to the US. We expect it’s great and are grateful for the work that detectives did.”