2 arrested, charged with killing Judge Memorial student — an ‘innocent bystander’

WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah — Two documented gang members, including a 17-year-old boy, have been arrested in Nebraska in connection with the shooting death of a 17-year-old Judge Memorial Catholic High School student last month.

Prosecutors believe the victim “was an innocent bystander” and the shots in a West Valley parking lot were meant for someone else in the victim’s car, according to charging documents.

Mare Biel, 18, of Glendale, Arizona, and Bevan Kuajian, 17, of West Valley City, were both charged on Friday in 3rd District Court with murder, a first-degree felony; discharge of a firearm causing serious injury and obstruction of justice, second-degree felonies; and eight counts of illegal discharge of a firearm, a third-degree felony.

The charging documents were originally filed under seal until Biel and Kuajian could be located and arrested. Kuajian was 16 at the time of the shooting.

The two are charged with shooting and killing Nuer Deng, a student at Judge Memorial and a member of the basketball team, who was sitting in the back of a car on July 13.

On that day, Deng and his friends were in the parking lot at Winco, 2592 S. 5600 South, looking at their phones, when an Infiniti pulled up behind them.

“The passenger of the Infiniti rolled down his window, and a black handgun came out. (A passenger) heard ‘three or four’ gunshots, and he could see the flash as the gun was firing,” according to charging documents.

Nine shell casings were recovered at the scene. The victims sped away, but the other two people in the car could see Deng was bleeding from his chest.

“I got shot,” Deng told the others, according to the charges.

Deng died shortly after arriving at a local hospital.

Read the full story from KSL.com here.

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