New Orleans police have arrested a suspect in the death of a 20-year-old woman who is confirmed to have been the niece of jazz trumpeter Kermit Ruffins, the Associated Press reports.
Will Reed, 20, was arrested during a traffic stop over the weekend and charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of Milan Arriola, according to the newswire.
According to the Times-Picayune, Arriola, the daughter of 15-year New Orleans police veteran Imani Ruffins and New Orleans Fire Department Capt. Roy Arriola Jr., was found shot in a car in the Gentilly neighborhood Friday night. Police responding to a call about shots being fired found the young woman in the passenger seat of a yellow Chevrolet Camaro with multiple gunshot wounds. She was taken to the hospital but later succumbed to her injuries.
"I'm quite sure it will all come out," Kermit Ruffins told the Times-Picayune. "Families go through this every freakin' day in New Orleans, and now it hit home. We looked at the news pissed off every morning that somebody's getting killed. We're just so helpless when it comes down to something like this.
"There's nothing that we can do to bring my little niece back," he added.
Read more at the Associated Press and the Times-Picayune.