Two charged with murder of toddler Brison Christian on Detroit highway in case of ‘mistaken identity’

Two men have been charged with the murder of a toddler on a Detroithighway in a case of mistaken identity.

Brison Christian was shot and killed when Darius Evonte Lanier, 19, and Eugene Meredith Hubbard, 21, allegedly mistook the family because of their truck.

Investigators in Michigan say that the two-year-old and his nine-year-old brother, BJ, were shot while being driven on I-75 by his parents.

“I looked out my side window and I seen somebody hanging out the window with a gun,” his father Brian Christian said.

When the family pulled over, Mr Christian says that Brison had been shot in the head and BJ in the arm.

Brison, the the nephew of a Detroit police officer, was pronounced dead at hospital.

Both suspects allegedly fled the scene and were arrested on Saturday, prosecutors said.

“The Christian family were completely innocent victims,” said prosecutor Kym Worthy in a statement.

Both men are charged with first-degree murder, three counts of assault with intent to murder, one count of discharge from a vehicle causing death, one count of discharge from a vehicle causing injury, two counts of discharge from a vehicle and eight counts of felony firearm.

They were arraigned on Tuesday and are due back in court 6 July.

Detroit interim Police Chief James White has announced Operation Brison, in which Detroit police will work with neighboring agencies to deal with freeway violence.

“This is unacceptable. We will never forget little Brison. We will never forget what happened to him,” he said.

And he added that the force would use every technology available to “constitutionally get violent offenders off the street.”

“If you do a drive-by we have over 100 crime analysts ... we’re going to pull video from every source we can ... we’re going to identify who’s doing this violence.”