Uncle arrested, victim remembered in Thanksgiving dinner murder

DETROIT (WJBK) - A man suspected in the deadly shooting a 16-year-old relative during Thanksgiving dinner has been arrested.

James Graham, 48, had been on the run for multiple days after the shooting happened at a home in the 9000 block of Ward Street in Detroit.

Police say Graham shot his nephew, Freland Pridgen, after an argument over Thanksgiving dinner. Freland was rushed to the hospital and was stabilized for a few days, but later died on Sunday.

Graham was arrested during a traffic stop late Monday night in the area of Joy Road and Northfield Street. He was taken into custody without incident.

Relatives say Graham had been recently released from prison. He spent a decade behind bars for setting the mother of his children on fire.

"He's not even supposed to be around guns," says Graystone Maddox, a relative. "And he took a sawed off shotgun - that's way premeditated  - loaded it up, went upstairs and shot my nephew in the back of the head."

Freland was a junior at Henry Ford School of Creative Studies.

"I hate that this happened, because that's my brother," said one man related to the suspect. "My brother is a good person but he has a temper. Nobody in the world would have believed that it would go this far."