Radford El
A Greenwood teen has been formally charged with murder after shooting a 16-year-old student at a bus stop last week.
Tyrique Sevein Radford El, 18, was charged with murder Wednesday after fatally shooting Temario Kendall Stokes Jr., 16, also of Greenwood, multiple times while Stokes was waiting for the school bus near his home in the Summerfield Village subdivision on Aug. 25. Radford El, who is formerly of East St. Louis, Illinois, was preliminarily charged with murder last week after police questioned him and served two warrants related to the shooting.
The shooting was reported at around 6:58 a.m. Aug. 25, and when police arrived they found Stokes lying in the street near the intersection of Winterwood Drive and Providence Drive. The teen appeared to have been shot multiple times, and later was pronounced dead at the scene after life-saving measures were conducted, according to a probable cause affidavit filed Wednesday in Johnson County Superior Court 3.
Other people waiting at the bus stop fled after the shots were fired, and the suspect escaped the scene on foot, police said.
Police previously said that both Radford El and Stokes knew each other and that a “minor dispute” led to the shooting. In an interview with police hours after the shooting, Radford El allegedly admitted to shooting Stokes, according to the affidavit.
After speaking with Stokes’ parents after the shooting, detectives learned that he, and his younger sibling, had an issue with another juvenile regarding a dirt bike that was stolen from Stokes a few weeks prior to the shooting, the affidavit said.
Police spoke with the juvenile on the day of the shooting and he had not learned of the shooting until after arriving at school. The juvenile described Radford El as a friend, according to the affidavit.
Police then spoke with a witness who was parked at a nearby business and witnessed the shooting. The witness said they saw a teen standing at a bus stop when a man wearing a dark-colored hooded sweatshirt start shooting. After the teen fell to the ground, the man stood over him and fired several more times before fleeing the scene, the affidavit says.
About three hours after the shooting, around 10:40 a.m., police found the man, later identified as Radford El, exiting a cornfield into the backyard of a home on 0 block of Declaration Drive. Radford El was not wearing the sweatshirt, as police had found it, along with a rolled-up T-shirt and a pair of mud-covered shoes, in an area of disturbed vegetation between a corn field and a fence row, according to the affidavit.
Police stopped Radford El and placed him in handcuffs. At the time, he was “extremely” wet, did not have shoes on, and was covered in mud and grass. He matched the description given by witnesses and looked like the man police saw on security camera footage of the shooting, the affidavit says.
Police then asked Radford El what he was doing before he was apprehended. He said he had been exercising in the backyard of a friend’s house. He was then taken to the Greenwood Police Department, and placed in a recorded interview room while detectives conducted an interview with a witness, according to the affidavit.
In the room, police say Radford El began to speak and laughed, saying he was going to say he was working out before he came into the room. A short time later, he again laughed and said “Shouldn’t never left the corn,” the affidavit says.
When police spoke with Radford El, he allegedly said that he had been at the home and was going to use a bench press in the backyard. He then claimed he heard sirens, so he waited for the police to leave the area before he exited the home to use the bench press. He told investigators that he had gotten dirty from cleaning off and using the bench press, according to the affidavit.
A few hours later, Radford El told detectives he wanted to talk and had questions about his right to an attorney and the search warrants. Radford El allegedly laughed and changed his story that he said he had not been at the home on Declaration Drive. He then said he would tell police everything about the “killing and stuff,” the affidavit says.
He told police that the teen had allegedly pulled a gun on him and the friend recently, and said that the last time he saw Stokes, he had a gun on his left hip, according to the affidavit.
On the day of the shooting, Radford El was walking around in the neighborhood when he saw Stokes at a bus stop and “reacted too fast.” Radford El allegedly told police that he believed Stokes could have still had a gun on him, as the teen allegedly put his hand on his left pocket, the affidavit says.
“Nine times out of 10, he probably did just reach for his pocket. But I don’t know,” Radford El reportedly said. “But you can’t call that self-defense though, because he didn’t pull it.”
When asked to clarify these comments, Radford El told detectives that he doubted the teen had a gun with him, according to the affidavit.
Radford El allegedly told detectives that he “blanked for a second” before opening fire on Stokes. He also told detectives that he believed he committed the crime of manslaughter because he “shot him more times than necessary.” He then told police that he fired at Stokes, and fired more rounds as the teen turned to run away, according to the affidavit.
He said he believed that Stokes had caught him “slipping” and believed that the teen was going to do “the same thing he did last time” or worse, the affidavit said.
Radford El later told investigators that he left the weapon, a Taurus G2C 9 mm handgun, in a cornfield as he ran away from the shooting, the affidavit shows.
He also allegedly told investigators that he knew it was wrong to shoot Stokes but did so anyway. When asked by detectives how he felt about shooting the teen, Radford El reportedly expressed a wish to seek therapy, according to the affidavit.
Last week, officials said Stokes and Radford El lived one mile apart and described them as acquaintances. Stokes was new to the neighborhood and had only attended Clark-Pleasant Community Schools for four days prior to the shooting.
