Teen arrested in connection with 8-year-old's drive-by shooting death

Devonte Lockett, 18, is charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in connection to the shooting death of 8-year-old Tristian Hutchins, Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo announced Thursday night. Devonte Lockett, 18, is charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in connection to the shooting death of 8-year-old Tristian Hutchins, Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo announced Thursday night. Photo: Houston Police Department Photo: Houston Police Department Image 1 of / 65 Caption Close Teen arrested in connection with 8-year-old's drive-by shooting death 1 / 65 Back to Gallery

A teen was arrested Thursday in connection with a drive-by shooting death of an 8-year-old boy in southeast Houston, police said.

Devonte Lockett, 18, is charged with murder in connection with the March 1 fatal shooting of Tristian Hutchins, Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said Thursday night.

Hutchins and his 5-year-old sister Kheristian were sitting in a car in a shopping center parking lot in the 3900 block of Scott Street when gunfire erupted, police said.

Tristian was shot in the head and rushed to the hospital, where he died on March 28. Kheristian also suffered a gunshot wound to the leg. Houston Police Department homicide detectives have previously said the shooting was gang related.

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Lockett, who lives in the Sunnyside area, served a 20-day sentence last year for a misdemeanor weapons charge, court records show.

In a statement Thursday night, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner thanked the community for providing information that he said helped assist police in the case.

"Violence against our kids will not be tolerated," he said. "We will work overtime and spend whatever it takes to protect our children."

It was not immediately clear whether a tip lead to Lockett's arrest, but Acevedo said that "when children get shot - when our most innocent people get killed - even some of the toughest people will start to talk."

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The shooting - and Tristian Hutchins' subsequent death - sent shockwaves through Houston, bringing together city and community leaders in a call for an end to gang and gun violence.

"We have to come together," said Reginald Gordon, of Operation Outreach, a community organization that empowers at-risk youth, said at a vigil held one day after the shooting. "We have to sit down at the table and discuss the issues. We've got to come together to bring a truth to this kind of violence that is going on amongst the communities here."

In an emotional press conference last week, Acevedo read Hutchins' name along with 10 other children who he said have died in indiscriminate gunfire in the city since December 2016, before pleading with Houston residents to find the "collective courage to stand up" to the violence.

"We have people being shot in gas stations that are innocent bystanders, in apartments that are innocent bystanders, and in our streets that are innocent bystanders," he said. "This community needs to be outraged. Although it wasn't your child that was shot, injured or killed, your child could be the next."

"There's no excuse - there's no justification - for these children to be taken from us," he said.

Jay R. Jordan is a breaking news reporter at Chron.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JayRJordan.