Man charged in murder of 3-year-old on Southfield Freeway

DETROIT (FOX 2) - The Wayne County Prosecutor's Office has charged a 24-year-old man in the fatal shooting of 3-year-old Christian "CJ" Miller on the Southfield Freeway last week.

Derrick Durham, 24, was charged Friday with the January 24th shooting of CJ as he was riding in the backseat of his godmother's car.

Durham turned himself into the Michigan State Police earlier this week. He was charged Friday with one count of open murder and discharge of a gun from a car causing death, among other felony charges. He will be arraigned Friday in Romulu.

Michigan State Police said then that the suspect is a 24-year-old man from Detroit, and that the shooting may have stemmed from a "traffic incident."

A source told FOX 2 Thursday that the suspect was at the light before the on-ramp on the Southfield Freeway. In front of the suspect's car was the victim's car, driven by the Godmother of Christian "CJ" Miller, who was taking the boy to Sesame Street Live on Jan. 24. 

We're told the light changed and the suspect didn't move. The woman honked her horn and he still didn't move, but then he began moving very slowly on purpose. The Godmother accelerated and eventually passed him and got around his vehicle before getting on the freeway. 

According to our source, the suspect got angry at the woman for passing his vehicle and then sped up to follow her. We're told he eventually pulled up next to her on the driver's side and pulled a gun that he shot into her car.

CJ was hit between the shoulder blades with the bullet. He died the next day at the hosptial.

FOX 2's source said the suspect said he didn't know a kid was in the car and initially tried to claim he spotted an object in the woman's hand. 

The source tells us the suspect is a "career criminal" and that police are investigating a possible connection to other homicides as well.