Edited release
10/13/23
Cedar Rapids Police have made an arrest in a homicide that occurred Thursday afternoon.
According to a release from the Department, the incident happened in the 2000 block of Wiley Blvd SW.
Officers were called at approximately 5:09p.m. and arrived on-scene to find a single adult male who was pronounced deceased in a vehicle on-site.
The Gazette reports 28-year-old Darnell Bays offered his cousin $30 to drive him to Uptown Liquor, where Bays said he was going to buy marijuana from Michael Hodges Jr. When they arrived, Bays got out of his cousins’ white SUV and got into the passenger seat of Hodges’ VW Jetta, where he shot Hodges five times, killing him.
Bays allegedly told his cousin that he didn’t get the money, although he originally told him he was making a purchase. The cousin went to the CRPD two hours after the incident and acknowledged that he was the driver of the SUV and Bays was his passenger.
Two different surveillance videos at the scene confirmed the cousin’s story.
Bays has been charged with first-degree murder, intimidation with a dangerous weapon, going armed with intent and felon in possession of a firearm. The murder charge comes with life imprisonment without parole if convicted.