Arrest made in Campos Plaza fatal shooting

BY THE VILLAGE SUN | Police on Sunday night announced an arrest in the Oct. 27 slaying of Campos Plaza resident Jaden Stokes, 21, in Alphabet City.

According to police, Lindell Cox, 31, of 1115 F.D.R. Drive, in the Jacob Riis Houses, was collared Friday afternoon when he went to his parole office on W. 40th Street across from the Port Authority bus terminal.

Cox was on parole for a 2012 robbery in the Fifth Precinct (Chinatown / Little Italy), the details of which a police spokesperson did not provide.

According to the spokesperson, Cox did not talk to police when he was arrested Friday. The spokesperson said last month’s shooting may have been a “possible retaliation” for a previous dispute between the two men that itself followed another dispute before that.

The spokesperson was unable to say whether there was any gang connection to the shooting, but added that information about that and about the nature of the dispute would likely come out when Cox is arraigned in court, probably either today or tomorrow.

In the Oct. 27 shooting, according to surveillance-camera video, Stokes and another man, 24, walked into the lobby of 635 E. 12th St., at Avenue C — where Stokes lived — around 7:30 p.m., and headed toward the elevators. They were followed by the gunman, who opened fire on them. The two victims then ran down a hallway as the shooter pursued them, continuing to fire at them.

Stokes, who was hit once in the torso, was pronounced dead at Bellevue Hospital. The other man suffered a nonfatal wound to his left leg and was treated at Bellevue.

The murder victim and the alleged shooter lived five blocks away — a 6-minute walk — from each other.