Rapid City police say a man they publicly named and hunted as an armed and dangerous suspect is now in custody, less than a day after a woman was shot in an alley on the city's north side. Tesean Richards, 21, of Rapid City, "has been located and safely taken into custody for Attempted Murder in relation to the November 5th shooting incident in the 900 block of Haines Avenue," the Rapid City Post reported in an update on Friday, November 6, relaying the police announcement. The shooting itself happened on Thursday evening, and the woman who was shot remains in hospital with serious injuries, according to police statements carried by local outlets.
What happened in the alley
Officers were dispatched at around 7 p.m. on Thursday, November 5, to an alley behind the 900 block of Haines Avenue after a report that a shooting had just occurred, the Rapid City Police Department said. When officers arrived, they found an adult woman suffering from a gunshot wound to the torso. She was transported to a local hospital for treatment of serious injuries. Police have not released the woman's name, and no update on her condition beyond "serious injuries" had been issued in the reports published on Friday.
Source: The Rapid City Post
Haines Avenue is one of the main north-south streets on Rapid City's north side, and the 900 block is a residential stretch of houses and alleys rather than a commercial strip. The shooting was reported in the early evening, at an hour when residents on such a street are typically home, which is one reason the police appeal for information was pushed out so widely and so quickly on Thursday night and Friday morning.
How police named a suspect
Investigators identified Richards as the suspect after interviewing witnesses and reviewing physical evidence collected at the scene, police said. That sequence — witness accounts first, physical evidence alongside them — is the account the department itself gave to every local outlet that carried the story, including KOTA Radio and KDSJ, which published the same police details on Friday. Police did not release what the evidence was, what witnesses described, or what they believe led up to the shooting, and they said on Friday that no further details about the circumstances leading up to the shooting have been released.
Source: KOTA Radio
While the search was active, police described Richards as last seen wearing a black Nike sweater, black jeans and a black ski mask, and warned that he should be considered armed and dangerous. Members of the public were told not to approach him. Anyone with information about his whereabouts was asked to contact the Rapid City Police Department immediately at 605-394-4131, or to send an anonymous tip by texting the letters "RCPD" along with the information to 847411.
The arrest, a day later
That public phase of the case ended on Friday. In its November 6 update, the Rapid City Post reported that Richards had been located and safely taken into custody for attempted murder in relation to the November 5 shooting. The word "safely" in the police wording matters: after a manhunt in which the named suspect was described as armed and dangerous, the arrest was completed without any further injury being reported. Police did not say in the update where Richards was found, at what time he was taken into custody, or whether a weapon was recovered, and those details had not been published by any of the local outlets following the case as of Friday evening.
An arrest and an attempted-murder allegation are accusations made by police, not findings of a court. Richards is presumed innocent unless and until he is convicted, and the formal charges in a case like this are decided by prosecutors after they review the police investigation.
Background: the city and the corridor
Rapid City is the county seat of Pennington County and the largest city in western South Dakota, set at the eastern edge of the Black Hills. Haines Avenue runs through established residential neighbourhoods on the city's north side. The city also sits directly on Interstate 90, the northern cross-country freight corridor — a route worked year-round by long-haul truckers, including Punjabi drivers crossing the northern plains between the Midwest, the mountain states and the Pacific Northwest. A shooting on a residential street and a day-long armed-and-dangerous alert are the kind of local police events that matter both to the families who live on that street and to the drivers and travellers passing through the city at night, which is why the department's public updates were carried prominently by every local newsroom in the Black Hills on Friday.
What happens next
The investigation remains ongoing, police said on Friday, even after the arrest. The next steps in a Pennington County case of this kind run through the courts: formal charges are filed by prosecutors, the arrested person appears before a judge for an initial appearance and a bond decision, and investigators continue collecting statements and evidence in the meantime. Police have not announced any additional suspects, and they have not said whether they believe anyone else was involved. The most closely watched update in the coming days will be the condition of the woman who was shot: as of Friday's reports she was being treated for serious injuries, and police had not released her name. Anyone who knows anything about the shooting who has not yet spoken to investigators can still contact the department at 605-394-4131 or text an anonymous tip beginning with "RCPD" to 847411.