Man arrested on murder charge in Fort Worth shooting of Louisiana football player
A 25-year-old man was arrested this week and charged with murder in the fatal shooting of a Louisiana football player in Fort Worth in November.
Tajuan Burnett was arrested Tuesday in Fort Worth, according to Fort Worth police records. He is accused of killing Al Riles, 27, a former receiver with the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, according to ESPN.
After the shooting on Nov. 7, the Fort Worth Police Department requested help from the U.S. Marshals North Texas Regional Fugitive Task Force to find Burnett. They believed Burnett was hiding in Louisiana.
Police found Burnett this week at an apartment in Fort Worth, according to a search warrant.
A GoFundMe created for Riles’ family described him as someone who “impacted every life he touched” and “had a smile that could light up a room.”
“We lost a friend, a brother, a daughter lost her father, and a mother lost her son,” the GoFundMe page said. “A life gone too soon! He accomplished so much but was determined to do so much more and that was taken from him.”
Riles’ mother, Diedre Riles, told the Daily Advertiser newspaper in Lafayette that her son and Burnett were friends, and they got into an argument before the shooting. The argument was not serious, she said, but her son was shot and killed over it.
Al Riles had been attending online culinary school while living in Texas, his mother told the Daily Advertiser.
Riles was found in the 4800 block of Great Divide Drive with a gunshot wound to his upper torso.
