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Washington DC Man Sentenced to 24 Years for Murder and Gun Charges
A brazen mid-morning killing in the lobby of an apartment building in Southeast Washington has resulted in a 24-year prison sentence for the perpetrator. Shaka Haltiwanger, 24, of Washington, D.C., was found guilty of second-degree murder while armed, possession of a firearm during a crime of violence, and related charges.
The crime occurred on September 10, 2021, when 39-year-old Anthony Kelley arrived at his father’s apartment building to take his father, who had suffered a stroke, to the grocery store. When Mr. Kelley entered his father’s apartment, he found Haltiwanger on the living room couch. Haltiwanger had been regularly selling crack cocaine to Mr. Kelley’s father.
Mr. Kelley confronted Haltiwanger and physically removed him from the apartment. Haltiwanger and Mr. Kelley continued to argue in the hallway and stairwell of the apartment building until Mr. Kelley separated himself and began to walk away toward the building’s front door. Haltiwanger then removed a 9 mm “ghost gun,” equipped with a 50-round magazine drum, from his backpack and shot Mr. Kelley once in the back.
The gun jammed after the first shot, and Haltiwanger fled the scene. He and others then proceeded to call multiple eyewitnesses to the shooting more than a dozen times using blocked phone numbers while the eyewitnesses were speaking to law enforcement on scene.
Haltiwanger was arrested for the murder of Mr. Kelley on September 30, 2021, and has been in custody since. At the time of the murder, Haltiwanger was on pretrial release for a pending gun and drug case in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.
On March 22, 2023, a jury found Haltiwanger guilty of the charges. In addition to the 24-year prison term, the Honorable Rainey Brandt ordered three years of supervised release. U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves and Acting Chief Pamela A. Smith commended the work of those who investigated the case from the Metropolitan Police Department and expressed appreciation for the assistance provided by the U.S. Marshals Service and FBI CAST team.
Key Facts
- State: Washington DC
- Category: Violent Crime
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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