A third teen was arrested and charged with murder Thursday in Sunday’s killing of 25-year-old Antonio Turner.

Vicksburg Police Sgt. Sandra Williams said all three teens are believed to be in a gang called K3.

Roosevelt Dewayne Harris, 17, 1803 First East St., was questioned by police in the hours after Turner was found shot in his car on Alcorn Drive but was released due to a lack of evidence, said Williams.

“We have had several witnesses come forward and give statements since then,” Williams said. “Based on the information disclosed to us, we gathered enough information for probable cause and got a warrant for his arrest.”

Monday, 16-year-old Gemini Porter, 2501 Culkin Road, and 17-year-old Kersey Young, 1115 Adams Lane, were arrested and charged with murder. All three teens have also been charged with shooting into an occupied vehicle. Porter and Young were being held in the Warren County Jail under $125,000 bonds as of Thursday evening. Harris also had bond set at $125,000 at his initial court appearance on Thursday, but Williams said he had not been booked in the jail yet. 

Turner, whose autopsy revealed he died of two gunshot wounds to the back, is not believed to have been involved with K3 or any other gang, Williams said. He was inside a parked vehicle on the residential street in Rolling Acres, a Vicksburg Housing Authority development, shortly before 1 a.m. Police believe the suspects attempted to rob him. After being shot, Turner was able to drive the vehicle about 100 yards before careening into the brick column of a home at 112 Alcorn Drive.

Williams would not comment on whether Turner was alone in the vehicle at the time of the shooting, citing the ongoing investigation. However, Turner’s mother, Daphine Turner, said one of her son’s close friends was also inside the car. The friend, she said, told her he survived the attack only by pretending to be shot.

Police Chief Tommy Moffett said Harris, Porter and Young are all members of K3, an active gang in Vicksburg that police are trying to find more information about. He said police do not know the extent of the gang’s organization or its size.

“It has been around for a while. I can’t give you an exact number of members, but it is definitely growing,” said Moffett. “It appears (the members) all live in Waltersville and Rolling Acres.” However, none of the three arrested in Turner’s killing lives in either Waltersville or Rolling Acres.

The K in K3 appears to stand for Kings — as in the neighborhood north of Vicksburg where Waltersville Apartments, also a VHA property, is located — while the 3 stands for the three streets in the Rolling Acres subdivision, said Moffett. Williams said identified members of K3 range in ages from 13 to 23. It is not known if the gang is active outside of Vicksburg, and Williams said it is the first gang she has encountered in Vicksburg since joining the police force in the early 1990s. 

“I’m sure there’s people out there that identify themselves as gang members, but this is the first group I am aware of that has been identified as an organized gang,” she said. 

Turner’s death was the first homicide in Vicksburg in 2009. Warren County outside Vicksburg has recorded one homicide, the death by stabbing of 50-year-old Shawn Paul Sponholz on Jan. 23. No arrests have been reported in that case.

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Contact Steve Sanoski at ssanoski@vicksburgpost.com.