A 33-year-old man suspected of killing a petrol station clerk near Seattle’s Space Needle before the deaths of his mother and her husband in Wisconsin has been arrested in Chicago.
Michael O’Neal Fleming was taken into custody without incident by the US Marshals Service on Tuesday, October 20, Seattle Police said.
He is accused of shooting a former co-worker at a 76 petrol station on Broad Street, near Belltown, in the early hours of October 13. Officers found the 36-year-old clerk unresponsive behind the counter after responding to reports of gunfire shortly before 6am.
Police said the suspect entered the shop, approached the counter and shot the clerk before leaving on foot. The attack was not treated as a robbery, with no money or goods taken.
Fleming was later identified as a person of interest after his mother, Rena O’Neal, 59, and her husband, Rodney Brushwood, 57, were found fatally shot at a home in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Monday, October 19.
The couple were discovered during a welfare check at a property on Washington Road. Kenosha police had described Fleming as armed, dangerous and unstable and warned members of the public not to approach him.
Authorities traced him to Chicago following information from family members, according to US media reports. Kenosha detectives are expected to work with the county district attorney’s office on extradition proceedings and possible charges in Wisconsin.
Fleming has already been charged in King County, Seattle, with first-degree murder with a firearm over the petrol station killing. His bail was set at five million dollars, and his arraignment is scheduled for November 2.
