Police Arrest 3 Suspect For The Shooting Of A 5-Year-Old Girl

Layla Petersen

It took nearly a year, but law enforcement authorities in Wisconsin say they've apprehended the three men responsible for 5-year-old Laylah Petersen's shooting death last November.

On Tuesday, the Milwaukee Police Department announced the arrests of 24-year-old Paul Farr, Carl Barrett, 20, and Arlis Gordon, 23. Barrett and Gordon each were charged with reckless homicide, while Farr is facing two counts of harboring or aiding a felon. The trio was arrested last week, a police spokesperson tells PEOPLE.


Petersen and her grandfather were sitting on a couch in her grandparents' home the evening of Nov. 6, 2014, when more than 10 bullets were fired at the house, police claim.

The bullets punctured the walls, and one hit the little girl's head.

The criminal complaint, obtained by PEOPLE, says that Gordon and Barrett were the alleged triggermen. Farr is alleged to have driven them to the home, the complaint says.

Seven months before Petersen was killed, the brother of Gordon, one of the triggermen, died. On the day of the shooting, the man who was suspected of killing Gordon's brother was acquitted. Police believe Arlis Gordon, Barrett and Farr were under the false impression that Petersen's grandparents' house was the home of the acquitted suspect in Gordon's death.

The arrests followed the obtaining of new information from sources including known associates of the alleged suspects, a police spokesperson tells PEOPLE.