KALAMAZOO, MI — A Battle Creek man already in jail on an attempted murder charge has now been charged in the shooting death of Kalamazoo college student Rachel Curl.
Ja’Shaun Markee Jones, 20, had an amended charge of open murder added on Tuesday, Dec. 22, in Kalamazoo County District Court.
Related: Woman killed in Kalamazoo apartment shooting was ‘kind-hearted’ 20-year-old
Curl, a 20-year-old native of Benton Harbor, was a student at Kalamazoo Valley Community College, her friend Ari Dolge told MLive.
Dolge said Curl will be remembered as someone who was outgoing and “could get anybody in the room to smile and laugh along with her.”
“She always made sure everyone was okay,” Dolge said. “She’d never leave anybody behind.”
Rachel Curl, 20, was one of two people shot at around 3:30 a.m. at Hidden Hills apartment complex on Oct. 17, 2020. She died later that morning at Bronson Methodist Hospital. (Facebook photo)
Jones is alleged to have shot Curl at the Hidden Hills apartment complex, in the 4200 block of Hidden Hills Drive not far from the campus of Western Michigan University, at around 3:30 a.m., Saturday, Oct. 17.
Curl died later that morning at Bronson Methodist Hospital.
The suspect had already been charged with assault with intent to murder 19-year-old Mattalis Buchanan Jr. that same night at the apartment complex.
Jones now faces eight felony counts in the case, including open murder, assault with intent to murder, two counts of discharging a firearm in or at a building causing injury, and four weapons felony firearms charges.
He is due back in Kalamazoo County District Court for a preliminary hearing on Jan. 14.
Jones was already in jail with a cash or surety of bond of $100,000 in the assault with attempt to murder case. His bond was increased to $1,000,000 on Tuesday.
The night of the double shooting, officers had visited the apartment Curl was killed in earlier on to break up a party, Kalamazoo Public Safety Capt. Craig Habel told MLive.
Upon their return, after the shooting, casings were found by police inside the apartment, in the hallway and in the parking lot, Habel said.
The shooting was not the first to occur at the apartment complex in 2020.
Another double shooting occurred at Hidden Hills on Sept. 6. In that case, a 26-year-old man and a 17-year-old boy, both of Kalamazoo, were hospitalized, and a 37-year-old Grand Rapids man was arrested. There were no fatalities in that incident.
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