TOLEDO, Ohio — Toledo Police Chief George Kral said Wednesday his department is in overdrive, working to bring the person responsible for the shooting death of 7-month-old Desire Hughes to justice.
The child was killed in a drive-by shooting on April 27, when suspects fired into the car she was in with her father, Jeremiah Hughes.
Kral said they had detectives going door to door in the Hillcrest neighborhood looking for evidence. He said it was footage from a Ring security camera that helped officers identify a suspect: 22-year-old Jadiah Carter.
On May 3, officers took Carter into custody.
Court documents revealed he confessed to being the shooter in Desire's death shortly after his arrest.
Carter was arraigned the next day. Currently, he's in jail on a $1 million bond. A judge ordered him to have no contact with the victim's family.
The week of April 27 was especially violent for Toledo, with seven deaths in eight days.
However, Kral said overall, Toledo is seeing homicide numbers go down, citing numbers 20-30% lower than at this same time last year.
Kral gave credit to programs like the department's targeted neighborhood raids, which take weapons and drugs off of the streets, saying the city will likely see more raids throughout the year.
He said that only a handful of people are responsible for the city's violence and that this arrest is not just a win for the Hughes family and the department, but the entire Toledo community.
"I've gotten I don't know how many calls, texts, and emails from people in the community saying 'great job.' They don't want this level of violence. No one wants to see a 7-month-old or a 27-year-old get killed," Kral said. "I think it shows what results can happen when we work together to reduce crime."
However, half of this year's homicides remain unsolved. Kral said he believes it will require the continued cooperation of the entire Toledo community to get more killers off the streets.
"There's not a homicide that goes by that someone doesn't know who did it; it's as simple as that. We just have to have the courage to be heroes and bring that information out so we can make arrests and get those folks who are preying on Toledoans where they need to be, and that's behind bars," Kral said.
Carter did not enter a plea during his arraignment, but he will be back in court on May 11.