Two years after Alva Lopez Rivera was killed in the crossfire of the Milby Street shootout, Jafar Otems is charged with murder, Houston police said.

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) – More than two years after a woman was fatally shot while driving down a Third Ward street, Houston police have arrested the man responsible.

Jafar Otems, 23, was arrested Thursday afternoon and charged with the murder of 43-year-old Alva Lopez Rivera.

According to police Lopez Rivera drove down Milby Street in April 2022 when she was hit in the back by a ricochet bullet and crashed into a house. A man was also hit by a bullet but survived.

ONLY ON ABC13 An Eyewitness News camera captured Otems' first court appearance Friday night, where prosecutors alleged he was a gang member and was shooting rivals when Lopez Rivera died.

Just days before the shooting, police said, Otems had already been involved in another shooting in a parking garage at Bush Airport. Otems and suspected gang members had just flown in from Los Angeles.

“You were accused of smuggling large quantities of marijuana,” the judge said in court.

When they reached the parking garage, they were allegedly ambushed by members of another gang. The suspected members of the other gang reportedly include Otems' cousins.

Otems and his group were robbed. Then, police said, he chased the suspects and opened fire. Police said he was not charged in the shooting until two months later.

In the days following the shooting, Otems and his alleged gang members searched for members of the other gang before finding them on Milby Street, according to prosecutors.

In August 2023, he was arrested by police in Garvin County, Oklahoma, after he was found with over $20,000 in cash allegedly from drug sales.

Otems pleaded guilty in that case this month and was sentenced to two years probation.

At the time of the Milby shooting, he was still out on bail for the airport shooting.

In February, he made headlines after Galveston County deputies said he had attacked them on a Chase in Harris County before crashing into a trailer and jumped out as his SUV burst into flames. Officers said they were trying to arrest him on an outstanding warrant.

Otems is currently out on bail in this case.

At Friday's hearing, the judge set his bail for the murder charge at $150,000.
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