On the morning of September 10, 2021, 39-year-old Anthony Kelley of Upper Marlboro, Maryland, went to his father’s apartment in the 1400 block of 29th Street SE in Washington, D.C., intending to take him to the grocery store. Shortly before 11:30 a.m., Kelley found Shaka Haltiwanger on the living room couch; Haltiwanger had reportedly been selling crack cocaine to Kelley’s father. A confrontation began when Kelley physically removed Haltiwanger from the apartment and continued into the building’s hallway and stairwell.

As Kelley walked toward the front door, Haltiwanger produced a 9 mm ghost gun with a 50-round drum and fired a single shot that struck Kelley in the back. The weapon jammed after that shot and Haltiwanger fled. Emergency responders pronounced Kelley dead at the scene.

Investigators arrested 22-year-old Shaka Haltiwanger of Northeast, D.C., on September 30, 2021. Reports say Haltiwanger and others repeatedly called eyewitnesses from blocked numbers while those witnesses were speaking to police, and that Haltiwanger was on pretrial release in a separate gun and drug case at the time.