Malik Anderson
The fatal shooting of a Somerton teen at a neighborhood construction site on Aug. 19 was even more “personal” than even homicide detectives might’ve initially imagined.
Last Wednesday, authorities charged a boyhood friend of the victim for carrying out the execution-style slaying, which resulted from a dispute over a stolen video game console, police said.
Malik Anderson, 19, of the 1800 block of Tomlinson Road, allegedly lured his longtime pal, Daquan Marquis Crump, 19, to a construction site at 10175 Northeast Ave. and shot him 10 times in the face and head with a .22-caliber pistol, according to Capt. James Clark, the homicide unit commander.
“In [Anderson’s] mind, this is worth a human life, ‘Because I didn’t get a cut of a 60-dollar profit from a used PlayStation game, I’m gonna stand over and shoot a kid I’ve been friends with since I was 10 or 11 years old,’” Clark said during a news conference last Wednesday. “It’s really unconscionable and very, very sad.”
The shooting occurred at about 5:30 a.m. that Monday. Anderson allegedly told detectives that he and Crump, of the 9900 block of Haldeman Ave., had been at another friend’s Somerton home, but decided to leave. Neither teen had a car. Anderson convinced Crump to cut through the construction site, which was empty of workers at the time.
“They were going to another location and [Anderson] sort of lured him into this abandoned construction site,” Clark said. “[Anderson] waited until he got a couple steps in front of him. He pulled out a gun [and] shot him once in the back of the head. The decedent didn’t know what hit him. He went down and [Anderson] stood over top of him and fired nine more times.”
A construction worker discovered Crump’s corpse at 7:19 a.m. Crump was pronounced dead at the scene. Police are still investigating Anderson’s actions following the slaying. Police recovered the murder weapon from a refrigerator in Anderson’s home.
According to Clark, Anderson told detectives that he and Crump had planned previously to steal another friend’s PS3 game system, sell it and share the proceeds. But Crump carried out the theft on his own and re-sold the game for $60. He did not share the proceeds, angering Anderson.
Investigators believe that Anderson acted alone. They arrested him “without incident” at his home at about 5 a.m. last Wednesday, Clark said.
In the hours following the slaying and with detectives trying to generate investigative leads, Clark described the episode as “very, very brutal” and “very, very personal,” not knowing at the time who was responsible for the crime.
Detectives later learned that the alleged shooter and his target had been with other friends throughout the night and early morning leading up to the killing.
“It was like five or six friends. They all hung out together. They went to middle school together. They went to high school together. None of them really worked and they sort of bounced around from house to house, spent the night at each other’s houses. And that’s what they were doing that night. They were at a couple of area 7-Elevens and going to each other’s houses, just sort of hanging out, playing PlayStation and watching TV,” Clark said.
“Quite honestly, you have five or six teenagers who weren’t really doing a whole lot with their lives, just sort of hanging out. And [Anderson] came up with this unbelievable scheme. It’s beyond comprehension that he would kill his own friend like this.”
Crump reportedly was a George Washington High School alumnus. The school is mere yards from the murder scene. He had recently taken a job at a local Wendy’s restaurant. Police found a backpack containing his work uniform at the scene.
“[He] just recently got a job at Wendy’s because his family sort of put him out because he wasn’t doing anything,” Clark said.
The police commander said detectives still were investigating where Anderson allegedly obtained the murder weapon. They were also investigating when and where the PlayStation theft may have occurred.
Online court records show no prior criminal cases involving Anderson, although he had “one or two very, very minor priors,” Clark said. In accordance with state law, defendants charged with capital murder are not eligible for bail. Anderson is being held at Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility pending a Sept. 18 preliminary hearing. ••
