Arrests were made in connection with the murder of Julian Keel

COLUMBIA, S.C. – Two arrests have been made following the death of a Columbia teenager.

16-year-old Julian Keel, a rising graduate of Keenan High School, was shot and killed in June while attending a graduation ceremony.

“We were robbed. That's not fair. We were robbed. When you know something, you have to say something,” said Vonyetta Watson, Julian Keel’s mother.

Vonyetta Watson spoke to News19 shortly after her son was murdered. She wanted answers about the death of her son Julian “JuJu” Keel.

Now, four months later, their requests have been answered.

“I promise you we would solve this case. We would arrest those responsible for the murder of 'Juju and that is what happened. Thank you for sticking with us for so long,” said Chief Skip Holbrook.

Today, the Columbia Police Department announced that two people have been arrested in the case.

One is 20-year-old Tonie Wilson and the other is a 16-year-old youth. Both are charged with murder and possession of a weapon during a violent crime.

Officials say the investigation involved over 50 interviews, 10 search warrants and thousands of hours of work.

“Our crime scene technicians collected more than 50 spent bullet casings from the scene. “Our investigators recovered four different firearms during the course of this investigation,” said Chief Holbrook.

Officials say one of the firearms was a .300 Blackout assault rifle, which they believe is the murder weapon. Investigators tracked down the original buyer of the weapon, who allegedly admitted to selling the weapon on the dark web. This part of the case is still under investigation.

“Shot spotter technology also played a critical role in this investigation. “It helped identify the shots that were originally fired,” Chief Holbrook said.

The chief mentioned that the arrests were made based on current information collected by their investigators.

Officials say Julian was just a bystander and was fatally shot as he tried to leave the party.

“Today’s arrest represents closure to JuJu’s murder and also represents the solving of all of our murders this year,” said Chief Holbrook.

Officials say they expect more arrests in the case.