BPD arrest South Side homicide suspect

Billings police have arrested a suspect linked to the South Aspect murder earlier this week.

Melvin Joseph Fairly on High, 24, was booked into Yellowstone County Detention Facility on suspicion of deliberate murder, theft and tampering with proof, in keeping with jail data.

Officers with the Billings Police Division responded to a taking pictures on the 200 block of South twenty seventh Road late Wednesday night time, the Gazette beforehand reported. They discovered a 48-year-old man with a gunshot wound. Crews transported the person to a Billings hospital the place he was pronounced lifeless, in keeping with an announcement BPD posted to social media.

Fairly on High was recognized as a suspect within the killing, and was arrested Thursday night time, BPD Lt. Matt Lennick mentioned by way of social media. 

Wednesday’s taking pictures marks the 17^th murder investigation opened by BPD for 2022. Gunfire has been the reason for demise within the majority of these circumstances. Two hours earlier than responding to the South Aspect murder, emergency crews have been referred to as to King Arthur Drive within the Billings Heights the place a 30-year-old man had been shot. The sufferer was taken to the hospital, and one man was arrested.

In December alone, Billings officers responded to 3 homicides. Officers discovered a 64-year-old lifeless at his South Aspect residence Dec. 6. Yellowstone County prosecutors have charged Nina Mel Cochran, 32, with beating and stabbing the person to demise. The day before today, police discovered the physique of a 39-year-old man stabbed to demise on the Briar Patch Flats at 1141 twenty eighth Road West. The 2 homicides weren’t associated, Lennick instructed the Gazette, and no arrests have been made in connection to the person’s demise.