Suspect arrested after fatal shooting of 7-year-old boy on Colorado tribal reservation

A 23-year-old man suspected of fatally shooting a 7-year-old boy on a tribal reservation in Colorado earlier this month was captured on Tuesday afternoon in Utah. That's according to officials from the Navajo Police Department who said Jeremiah Hight is now in federal custody.

Hight is suspected in the Dec. 11 shooting at a home in Towaoc on the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation in the Four Corners region, where New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Colorado meet. The boy who died was identified as Zamias Lang, Montezuma County coroner George Deavers said Tuesday. Hight is a member of the Ute Mountain Ute tribe.

The FBI investigates serious crimes on the reservation. The agency announced on Monday that a $10,000 reward was being offered in the search for Hight. It said an arrest warrant was issued for him on Thursday after he was charged with murder, assault with a dangerous weapon and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence. A search for him that started over the weekend ended Tuesday afternoon "on top of a mesa, west of Oljato," the Navajo Police Department wrote in a news release. They said a law enforcement team that included K-9s captured Hight.

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

An online fundraiser to raise money for Lang's 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.