May 29—In April 2022, Timothy Lemon took to Facebook to lament losing his vehicle and, with it, many treasured belongings after moving to Albuquerque months earlier.

He went on to say, “I guess on the bright side, I have nothing left for Albuquerque to rob me of, except for my life.”

Police say last Friday, the 33-year-old was helping a friend set up a tent in Southeast Albuquerque when he was hit by a stray bullet intended for someone else. Lemon died at the scene.

Davonta Jacob, 24, is charged with an open count of murder and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in the shooting.

Gilbert Gallegos, an Albuquerque police spokesman, said officers arrested Jacob on Wednesday. He will be booked into the Metropolitan Detention Center.

Friends of Lemon erected a memorial to him on the sidewalk where he was shot — mementos surrounded by candles and flowers. In graffiti, “RIP TIM” was scrawled underneath.

“(Two) nights ago a good friend of mine Timothy lemon was shot right in front of me from a bullet that wasn’t even meant for him,” a man wrote on Facebook, with a photo of the memorial.

The post continued, “It’s not even real, so always hold your loved ones close and your friends because one minute they could be here in the next gone fly high with the angels brother until we meet again.”

Police responded around 10:15 p.m. to a shooting in a neighborhood northeast of San Mateo and Gibson SE, according to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court. Officers found Lemon had been shot in the chest, and he died at the scene.

Fifty yards away, police found spent bullet casings.

Police said a woman who lives in an RV nearby told them she saw two men arguing before a gunshot rang out. She said her friend “Tim,” who was not involved in the argument, then began yelling that he had been shot.

The woman told police the shooter then drove toward them in a gray sedan and asked, “What happened?” according to the complaint. She said she told the man he had shot Lemon, and he pulled out a gun and pointed it at her before fleeing.

Police said another woman told them she was setting up a tent with Lemon when one of the poles broke and he sat down to fix it. She said an argument broke out between a group of men down the block, and one of them fired “into the ground” before Lemon was shot.

As officers taped off the area, the car the shooter had fled in pulled up at a “high rate of speed” and asked police if he could “drive through the crime scene,” according to the complaint. When the person left, the officer took down the license plate number and learned the car belonged to Jacob.

Police said surveillance video showed the shooter fired in the direction of the man they were arguing with and then drove to where Lemon lay injured. The officer who stopped the driver at the crime scene tape picked Jacob out of a lineup.

A security guard at a liquor store told police someone came in and said “Melo” shot someone, according to the complaint, and identified a photo of Jacob as “Melo.”