Oklahoma fugitive arrested in Desert Hot Springs shooting

A man wanted for a 2007 robbery in Oklahoma was arrested by Desert Hot Springs police on Tuesday and faces charges stemming from a May 14 shooting.

Sgt. Ken Peary said a woman was found in a shopping center parking lot at the corner of Palm and Two Bunch Palms Drives on May 14, suffering a non-life-threatening gunshot wound to the head.

Detectives who were assigned the case discovered the identity of the suspected gunman. They also found out he had been using his brother’s name for at least five years.

Darius James Edney, 22, of Desert Hot Springs, spent time in prison as Eliah Edney and was paroled with that name.

On Tuesday, several agencies helped Desert Hot Springs police track Edney down in Calexico, where detectives arrested him and brought him to the Riverside County Jail in Indio.

Edney faces charges that could include attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, shooting at an occupies vehicle and false imprisonment. He also faces charges related to a crime committed while he was on parole and the outstanding fugitive warrant from Oklahoma.

According to news reports, those charges stem from a convenience store robbery in Ada, Okla., where three other suspects were arrested and eventually prosecuted for taking $335 from the cash register, $80 from two workers and several cartons of cigarettes from John’s Quick and Easy.

Edney was 17 years old at the time, but prosecutors were going to charge him as an adult because of the nature of the crime.

It’s not clear whether a Riverside County judge in California will grant him bail, or not.