One of the teenagers, who allegedly perpetrated the beating of a World War II veteran to death, was arrested on Friday while the other teen remains at large, a Spokane police said.
The suspect was charged with first-degree murder and robbery.
Delbert Belton, an 88-year-old man, died on Thursday due to severe head injuries from a beating incident outside the Eagles Lodge on Wednesday.
Circulating reports said that the 16-year-old suspect is currently being held in juvenile detention, but will be pressed with adult charges for the crimes he and his partner did.
Police officers announced that the motive for the beating of the WWII veteran is still unclear at the moment, admitting that the kids picked their victim at random. "It appears he was assaulted in the parking lot and there was no indication that he would have known these people prior to the assault."
Witnesses told the police that two black male teens attacked the retired aluminum company worker while he was on his way to play pool inside the lodge, where he was considered a regular.
When the police came to the crime scene as prompted by a concerned phone call, they found the beaten veteran inside his car, and he was declared dead because of conspicuous "blunt facial and head injurious" all over.
Spokane police offers had released the photos of the two perpetrators captured through area surveillance camera footage on Thursday.
Ted Denison, one of Belton's friends, who has also heard of the random killing against an Australian baseball player earlier this week, said, "It's really depressing... Seems that all there is bad news."
"He went up there and played pool, met with some of the guys he used to work with at Kaiser Aluminum," Denison confessed, interjecting that he and Belton were former mechanic buddies for the same company.
Additionally, Barbara Belton, WWII veteran's daughter-in-law, expressed that she was devastated with the shocking if not, disorienting news.
"He didn't drive a big fancy car. He didn't dress in expensive clothes. He didn't have a lot of money. He had very little money," she quipped. "What did they think they were going to get from this man?"
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