FBI offers reward in fatal shooting of 7-year-old boy on Colorado tribal reservation

DENVER (AP) — The FBI is offering a $10,000 reward for help finding a man suspected of fatally shooting a 7-year-old boy on a tribal reservation in Colorado earlier this month.

The agency announced the reward Monday for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Jeremiah Hight, 23, in the Dec. 11 shooting at a home in Towaoc on the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation.

The FBI investigates serious crimes on the reservation in the Four Corners region, where New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Colorado meet. It said an arrest warrant was issued for Hight, a member of the Ute Mountain Ute tribe, on Thursday after he was charged with murder, assault with a dangerous weapon and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence.

Authorities have not released any details about what led up to the shooting, and Hight’s arrest warrant was sealed. The FBI’s wanted poster for Hight said the shooting was “targeted at a residence.”

The boy who died was identified as Zamias Lang, Montezuma County coroner George Deavers said Tuesday.

An online fundraiser to raise money for his funeral described him as a “bright and loving” child.

In a video message after the shooting, tribal chairman Manuel Heart called the shooting “senseless” and urged people to let authorities investigate the shooting rather than retaliate on their own. Heart also said he was working on a resolution to ask the federal government to hire more police officers for the reservation and another to ban shooting within either of the reservation’s two communities — Towaoc and White Mesa, Utah.

“We are not going to have any more of these type of events where somebody gets shot,” he said.

By COLLEEN SLEVIN
Associated Press