The family of three-year-old Major Howard, killed in a drive-by shooting last year, said they never lost hope that the man accused of killing the boy would be captured.
The U.S. Marshals captured Donnell Lindsey Tuesday morning in a suburb of Atlanta.
"Getting a phone call saying they had captured him was the best thing ever,” said Victor Freeman, Jr, Howard's uncle.
Lindsey's arrest happened as the Howard family said they are preparing the boy's grave site, which will be in a section of a Cleveland cemetery known as "baby land," an area devoted to children who have passed.
“We can’t get him back, but at least it’s one step to getting justice where we’re trying to get closure," said Freeman who is 17 years old.
Freeman described a close relationship with his nephew and the pain of his death coupled with the anger of Lindsey on the loose.
“We went 238 days without justice, without anybody knowing where he was at, without anybody trying to turn him in," he added.
Freeman said he never knew or heard of Lindsey. He said the family plans to lay Howard's headstone on June 6 on what would have been his fourth birthday.
