A car with a license plate bearing the name of Auburn football player Jakell Lenard Mitchell is towed from the Tiger Lodge apartment complex in Auburn, Ala., where Mitchell was fatally shot early Sunday, Dec. 14, 2014. AUBURN, Ala. — The girlfriend of a slain Auburn football player said he was arguing with a man at a party when a third man pulled a handgun and opened fire.
Redshirted freshman football player Jakell Lenard Mitchell, 18, died after being shot in the chest early Sunday morning at an off-campus apartment complex. It was the same apartment complex where two former football players and a third man were shot to death outside a 2012 pool party.
Auburn police arrested 22-year-old Markale Deandra Hart of Camp Hill, Alabama, on murder charges on Sunday afternoon. Hart was being held at the Lee County Jail on $150,000 bond. Police have not released a motive for the crime, but said they don’t expect additional arrests.
Mitchell’s girlfriend, Ayanna Hughuley, 17, said Mitchell was arguing with a man in the parking lot, when a third man pulled a handgun.
“He had his gun like this and was looking at Jakell,” Ayanna Hughuley, 17, said of the suspect while holding her hand down at her waistband.