On a Monday evening in November, the life of Theodore Smith, a 29-year-old man, was tragically cut short in his own home. Inside his apartment at the Sumner Houses in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, on November 12, 2018, Smith was found by his girlfriend with two gunshot wounds to his head. Emergency responders were called to the Park Avenue residence around 7:30 p.m. and rushed him to Woodhull Medical Center, but his injuries proved fatal.
Initial investigations suggested that an argument had taken place in the apartment shortly before the shooting.
For months, the case remained without an arrest, leaving a void in the community. The investigation, however, took a significant turn seven months later due to an unrelated incident. A 19-year-old resident of the same housing complex, Lamique Haynie, was taken into custody in June 2019. His arrest was not directly for the murder but stemmed from an altercation with a taxi driver, who accused Haynie of attempting to steal his belongings. When police intervened, Haynie resisted and spat on an officer. It was only during the booking process that authorities realized he was the wanted suspect in the killing of Theodore Smith.
Following this unexpected break in the case, Lamique Haynie was charged with murder and criminal possession of a weapon. He was subsequently arraigned in Brooklyn Criminal Court and held without bail. Reports indicated that Haynie and Smith had a contentious relationship, which investigators believe culminated in the fatal shooting. Surveillance video allegedly captured Haynie immediately before and after the shooting, and witnesses reportedly identified him as the killer. In July 2019, Lamique Haynie pleaded not guilty to the second-degree murder charges in Brooklyn Supreme Court.
