Chicago man arrested in fatal Plymouth shooting tied to road rage

Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.
·2 min read

Sep. 2—A Chicago man has been arrested in the fatal July shooting of a youth baseball coach on a highway in Plymouth in a suspected case of road rage, according to police.

Jamal Lindsey Smith, 33, is currently in custody in Illinois awaiting extradition to Minnesota, according to a news release issued Thursday by the Plymouth Police Department.

Plymouth detectives partnered with the U.S. Marshals Service and the Decatur, Ill., Police Department to locate and arrest Smith on Aug. 24, Plymouth Police Chief Erik Fadden said during a Thursday news conference. The case has been submitted to the Hennepin County attorney's office.

"This was truly a needle in a haystack," Fadden said. "Our detectives never stopped digging and working and knocking on doors and reviewing video after video after video. And finally you get that little break every once in a while."

He added that detectives and other staffers in his department have logged 1,500 hours of work so far on this investigation, which is ongoing.

Investigators say 56-year-old Jay Boughton was shot in the head on July 6 as he drove his son home from a youth baseball game on U.S. 169.

Fadden has said a traffic altercation between two drivers "escalated quickly," and Boughton, of Crystal, may have been killed over something as minor as a lane change.

Boughton's vehicle then went through a fence and crashed in the parking lot of an apartment complex where his 15-year-old son, Harrison, gave him CPR.

During Thursday's news conference, Fadden declined to say whether investigators believe Smith was the shooter.

The suspect SUV was located last month. Police did not say where the SUV was found or what led them to it.

Plymouth police received nearly 400 tips from the public related to the case, which Fadden called instrumental to apprehending Smith, who was arrested on suspicion of second-degree murder.