CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The Charleston Police Department (CPD) announced that a man wanted in connection with two murders, including the shooting of Capital High School student Kelvin ‘K.J.’ Taylor, was arrested on Thursday.
Dekotis Thomas, 19, of Charleston was apprehended at a home in Akron, Ohio, according to CPD.
The Akron Beacon Journal reported that the U.S. Marshal’s Northern Ohio task force located Thomas at in the Glendora area. When officers made contact with Thomas, he reportedly told them he had a gun and a standoff followed.
According to the marshals, Thomas set fire to the house and threw a Molotov cocktail-style device at officers, as they were attempting to negotiate a surrender. The standoff lasted two hours and ended around noon.
In May, Thomas was indicted for murder in the April 7 shooting of Taylor in the 800 block of Central Avenue on Charleston’s West Side and a 2019 case in which a man was shot and killed on Interstate 77 in Charleston.
Thomas was one of two people indicted for the 2019 murder of Antwan Curnell, 28, of Dunbar. Curnell was shot just off the northbound Westmoreland Road exit. Curnell died a short time later at Charleston Area Medical Center.
Jordan Nicholas Lowrie, 23, was also indicted for Curnell’s murder.
The Akron Police Department assisted the United States Marshal Service and Northern Ohio Violent Fugitive Task Force in the arrest of Thomas.