Dispute over ‘stimulus money’ led to quadruple murder in Indianapolis
A woman’s refusal to share her $1,400 stimulus check with the father of her baby led to a massacre in Indianapolis, with a child and three adults shot to death in a horrific scene over the weekend, according to family members and a neighbor.
Jeanettrius Moore had just received the latest round of the federal government’s pandemic relief payments on Saturday when Malik Halfacre demanded half of the money, a cousin who heard the woman’s account told local news outlets. Moore reportedly offered him a $450 cut, but that was not enough for the enraged ex-con.
Halfacre, who was known to carry a gun despite a previous arrest for attempted murder, came back to the victim’s house later that day and started going through her purse, Wendy Johnson told Fox 59. Moore’s brother confronted the suspect and told him he could not have her money, which was when Halfacre “pulled out the gun and just started killing everybody,” Johnson said.
The man fatally shot Moore’s brother, her mother, one of her cousins and her 7-year-old daughter, according to police and the family. Moore, who was also shot, survived the attack and fled to a neighbor’s house.
The neighbor, Craig Jackson, said he was waiting for a food delivery when the blood-covered victim knocked on his door.
“I get up and said, ‘Who is it?’” Jackson told news station WISH-TV. “She said, ‘Can you help me? I’ve been shot.’”
The accused killer fled the scene with the couple’s 6-month-old daughter and evaded arrest for a day before police took him into custody Sunday afternoon. The infant was found safe and uninjured that day, according to police.
Authorities identified the adult victims as 23-year-old Daquan Moore, the woman’s brother; cousin Anthony Johnson, 35; and her 44-year-old mother, Tomeeka Brown. Another brother who arrived at the house after the shooting described the gruesome scene he found.
“I seen all my family members in there on the floor dead,” Lorenzo Moore told Fox 59. “I could put the picture together of how everything went down and how everybody went.”
The heartbroken brother said Halfacre was an angry person who made his sister fear him.
“We always knew that he carried a gun,” Lorenzo Moore said. “He didn’t have a job — just laying around being lazy.”
Jackson, who tried to keep Jeanettrius Moore conscious as they waited for an ambulance Saturday night, confirmed Johnson’s account about the apparent motive in the shooting.
“I said, ‘Why did he shoot you?’ And her exact words were ‘stimulus money,’” the neighbor told WISH-TV.
The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department has not released any details about the motive, but the investigation is ongoing.
The 25-year-old was arrested Sunday after a SWAT team used tear gas and went into a house where he was hiding, according to police. He is being held without bond on charges of murder, attempted murder and robbery.
Halfacre was charged in 2017 with attempted murder in an unrelated case but was eventually released after pleading guilty to a lesser charge, records show.