Arrest made in slaying of promising engineer gunned down on Blackstone in 2016

Fresno homicide detectives have arrested one man and are searching for another in the slaying of a promising young engineer gunned down in broad daylight on busy Blackstone Avenue nearly two years ago.

Barkete Shita, 25, was shot to death near Blackstone and Dakota avenues on Sept. 29, 2016 after he crossed paths with the armed strangers not far from the Caltrans office were he worked as he finished his degree at Fresno State.

Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer announced the arrest at a news conference Thursday afternoon, where he characterized the murder as the type where the victim does nothing wrong, but still ends up in the gunsights of armed men ready to kill with no thought to the consequences.

Kenneth Lee, 20, is in custody in the case and officers are seeking Devon Fisher, 18, who was characterized as armed and dangerous.

District Attorney Lisa Smittcamp, along with homicide detectives, was also at the news conference at police headquarters.

Dyer said the slaying was a heavy blow to the family of Shita, who left behind a fiance and two young boys. The Ethiopian-American community, of which Shita was a member, also mourns his death, he added.

The shooting took place just before 2 p.m. after Shita encountered three men at the Shell gasoline station at Dakota and Blackstone.

The chief said he could not get into what was said, but Shita drove away to a Jiffy Lube parking lot a block north. Moments later, two armed men from the previous encounter approached Shita and began firing.

Shita, wounded, sped away as the gunmen continued to shoot. He drove north in the southbound lanes of Blackstone and crashed head-on into a car at Griffith Way and died of his wounds.

Dyer said video from the shooting scene helped identify the shooters and detectives recently gained other, unspecified information about the slaying.

Of Shita, the chief said:

"This was an outstanding young man trying to better himself. This was an individual who was truly innocent. He was not involved in gang activity, never involved in criminal activity ... an innocent person who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time."

This story was originally published June 7, 2018 at 4:22 PM with the headline "Arrest made in slaying of promising engineer gunned down on Blackstone in 2016."