FBI offers $10,000 reward for suspect in slaying of 7-year-old on Colorado tribal reservation

The FBI is offering a $10,000 reward for help finding a man suspected of fatally shooting a 7-year-old boy on a Colorado tribal reservation earlier this month.

The dead boy has been identified as Zamias Lang, Montezuma County Coroner George Deavers said Tuesday. An online fundraiser for his funeral described him as a “bright and loving” child.

The agency announced a reward Monday for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Jeremiah Hite, 23, in the Dec. 11 shooting at a Towaoc home on the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation.

Hite, 23, is Native American with brown hair and brown eyes. He is 6 feet tall and weighs 400 pounds. He has tattoos on his right leg, left arm, right arm, right shoulder, neck and left shoulder. He has a punctured left ear and a scar on his chest, the FBI said in a statement.

The FBI is investigating serious crimes on the reservation in the Four Corners region, where New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Colorado meet.

Authorities have not released any details about what led up to the shooting, and the warrant for Hite’s arrest has been sealed. An FBI poster looking for Hite said the shooting was a “domestic target.”

In a video message after the shooting, Tribal Chairman Manuel Hart called the shooting “senseless” and urged people to let authorities investigate the shooting rather than retaliate on their own. Hart also said he is working on a resolution to ask the federal government to hire more police officers for the reservation, and another to ban shootings in either of the reservation’s two communities — Towauk and White Mesa, Utah.

“We’re not going to have any more incidents like this where someone gets shot,” he said.

(With AP input)