President Donald Trump on Thursday celebrated the news of the arrest of the alleged killer of four-year-old boy LeGend Taliferro of Kansas City.
“As you know, we named Operation Legend after LeGend Taliferro, where we’re in the process of helping out cities throughout our country that have difficulty with certain types of crime,” Trump said. “That’s really good news.”
The president lifted up a photo of Taliferro during a press conference on Thursday to remind the press about the case.
The news was announced Thursday afternoon by Attorney General William Barr in a statement.
“Today’s arrest of LeGend Taliferro’s suspected murderer marks a significant step forward in his case and illustrates the potential of Operation Legend more broadly,” Barr said.
The president met with LeGend’s parents at the White House in July, while defending his expansion of the federal operation to focus on the rise in crime in cities like Chicago and Albuquerque.
LeGend’s mother, Charron Powell, attended the White House event promoting the task force, as did LeGend’s father and grandparents.
“Operation Legend is not to harass, it’s not to harm or to hurt. It is to help investigate unsolved murders, in which one of those happens to be our innocent four-year-old son,” Powell said at the event, thanking the president for his attention to the case. “This operation is personal to us. We want justice for our son and others.”
Barr said that Operation Legend would continue, despite the arrest.
“Inspired by this success, federal law enforcement will continue working tirelessly to support state and local partners in our shared mission to keep the American people safe and enforce the rule of law,” he wrote.