SALEM, Ore. — The Salem Police Department said it has arrested a suspect following the November discovery of a 15-year-old's body in a truck, originally termed a "suspicious death" investigation.
Salem officers responded around 7:30 a.m. on Nov. 6 to reports of an unconscious person inside a truck near Evergreen Avenue Northeast and D Street, just north of the Oregon State Hospital. They arrived to find that the person, a 15-year-old boy from Salem, was dead.
At the time, Salem police did not say how the boy had died. But in the statement released Tuesday, SPD revealed that he'd suffered a gunshot wound. Within a week of the discovery, investigators had classified the investigation as a homicide.
On Wednesday this week, police arrested an 18-year-old suspect in connection with the teen's murder. According to Salem police, officers found him walking near Kinsington Street Southeast and Wickshire Court Southeast, just west of Commercial Street off Kuebler Boulevard.
According to Salem police, suspect started to reach for something in his waistband as officers approached, but an officer hit him with a "less-lethal munition," which "effectively resulted in the suspect's surrender." The officers found a handgun on the suspect as they took him into custody, SPD said.
While police declined to identify the suspect, the Marion County District Attorney's office confirmed his identity Wednesday as 18-year-old Gage Jeremy Clark-Adkins. A grand jury approved a secret indictment for Clark-Adkins this week, charging him with one count of murder in the second degree with a firearm. A judge withheld bail in the case during an arraignment on Thursday.
Salem police said they would not release any more information on the case for the time being, and further court documents are sealed. Clark-Adkins is scheduled for a status conference in court on Feb. 6.
