One of two suspects arrested in 2022 murder of teenage boy

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – A woman has been arrested nearly 23 months after the murder of a teenage boy on the West Side.

According to court documents, 21-year-old Justice Vereen was arrested on Monday and charged with involuntary manslaughter and tampering with evidence for her role in the fatal shooting of Brylan Butcher.

At 7:55 a.m. on March 5, 2022, police arrived in the Central Hilltop neighborhood near the 400 block of South Terrace Avenue and found Butcher, 14, lying dead between two cars parked in the street. Butcher was pronounced dead at 8:02 a.m. after being shot in the head.

Police did not have any leads in the case, but just over a year later, video from the area was released. Detectives determined that there were two suspects believed to have been with Butcher on the night he was killed.

Surveillance video from the neighborhood showed a woman exiting a car that was seen driving through an alley. A second suspect was also caught on video walking with Butcher just before the shooting.

The woman, later identified as Vereen, then 19, could be seen getting into the driver’s side of the vehicle, then switching back to the passenger side. During an interview with police, Vereen said she thought Butcher and the other suspect were going to steal a car, but she ducked in the car and covered her head.

An independent witness also told police that the unidentified suspect told Vereen one day earlier that he was going to kill Butcher and that he later admitted to others about shooting him afterward.

Vereen said she took the gun used in the shooting and placed it in a trash can at a nearby gas station. Police had recovered a gun after the shooting and had matched it to the gun used in Butcher’s murder.

Police have not yet arrested the other suspect involved in the murder.

In court Tuesday, a Franklin County Municipal judge issued Vereen a $500,000 bond. Her next court date has not yet been scheduled.