Alajawan Brown’s homicide wasn’t random.

He was targeted – by mistake, said King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg Thursday in announcing the filing of first-degree murder charges against Curtis John Walker, 35, of Kent.

Although the Brown family knew of the arrest, they were told the details of the case against Walker on Thursday afternoon.

“I don’t really know how to feel,” said Alajawan’s mother, Ayanna Brown. “We are obviously elated that they have somebody. Now we are trying to process it.”

Alajawan, 12, died the evening of April 29 at the 7-Eleven on Martin Luther King Jr. Way, after he was shot in the back just minutes after a violent argument involving two armed groups of people at the nearby Cedar Village Apartments on South 129th St.

Until Thursday, investigators with the King County Sheriff’s Office had said that Alajawan was shot by a stray bullet.

But Satterberg said Walker shot Alajawan, who was large for his age, because he thought he was involved in the shootout at the apartment complex in which a friend of Walker’s also was shot.

“He was literally in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Ayanna Brown said of her son. Had Alajawan been facing Walker, she said, the man charged with her son’s death “would have been able to see that he wasn’t the person he thought he was.”

Walker has a long criminal record and was under the supervision of the Washington state Department of Corrections. He was in custody already when he was charged.

“This child was shot by a violent felon,” Satterberg said. Later, he said, “This is a case that screams out for justice.”

Walker is being held in the King County Jail in downtown Seattle on $5 million bail. His arraignment is July 1.

Alajawan was walking home from the bus stop on Martin Luther King Jr. Way after buying football cleats at WalMart in downtown Renton.

Sheriff Sue Rahr, whose detectives investigated the shooting and relied heavily on forensic work by the Washington state Crime Lab, said Alajawan was a good kid who just wanted to play football.

“Alajawan is every kid,” she said.

Walker was linked to the shooting after three guns were found in a field in southwest Renton by a Renton Police officer. Walker’s DNA was found on the gun and bullets; because of his felony record, his DNA was already in a national database.

Alajawan’s death touched the community and those who investigated his crime. The Sheriff’s Office repeatedly pleaded for anyone who witnessed the shooting to step forward with information.

The three guns were found because a woman who had witnessed a hit-and-run accident involving the vehicle in which Walker fled was able to obtain a license plate number. She saw the driver leave the car and return later from the field.

A Renton Police officer responded to a “suspicious circumstances” call. He found the three guns, including the .38-caliber revolver prosecutors charge was used to kill Alajawan.

While she’s grateful for the arrest, Ayanna Brown said it wasn’t the result of information from any witnesses to the shooting.

“That’s still frustrating that none of them came forward,” she said. She wonders how anyone who saw the shootings “can still sleep at night.”