Stanley “Fred” Maurice Cooksey, a 50-year-old male from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, died after a shooting inside an apartment on the 2100 block of North 5th Street in Harrisburg in the late-night hours of July 7, 2021, with his death recorded as occurring on July 8. Police were called just before midnight for a report that a man had been shot in the face and was unresponsive. When officers arrived, they found Cooksey on the hallway floor of the apartment.
Emergency medical personnel pronounced him dead at the scene.
The person who called 911 was identified as Latosha Stoney, Cooksey’s longtime girlfriend. She was also injured when officers arrived, sitting near Cooksey with a gunshot wound to her forearm. Stoney told authorities that she and Cooksey had argued and that there had been a struggle over a handgun. During that struggle, the gun fired. Investigators later said the bullet passed through Stoney’s forearm and struck Cooksey in the face. An autopsy determined that Cooksey died from a gunshot wound to the face, and the manner of death was ruled homicide.
The argument was described by police as rooted in a painful domestic dispute. Stoney and Cooksey had reportedly been in a relationship since 1995. According to the criminal complaint summarized in news reports, Cooksey had recently told Stoney that he had fathered a child with another woman. Stoney was said to have been upset and had texted Cooksey for hours before the shooting, but he did not answer. She went to his apartment to ask why, and once there, she allegedly saw messages between Cooksey and the woman who had recently had his child. The confrontation escalated from an argument into a physical struggle involving the gun.
Police arrested Stoney in connection with the shooting, and she was charged with criminal homicide. Reports at the time said she was held without bail, as is typical in Pennsylvania homicide cases, and that a preliminary hearing was scheduled after her arrest. Prosecutors pursued the case on the theory that Cooksey’s death was not merely a tragic accident but the result of Stoney’s conduct during the argument.
More than two years later, the case went before a Dauphin County jury. In December 2023, jurors found Stoney not guilty of third-degree murder and not guilty of involuntary manslaughter. The acquittal meant there was no conviction and no sentencing or punishment imposed in connection with Cooksey’s death. The jury’s decision reflected the defense position that the fatal shot occurred accidentally during the struggle, rather than as an intentional or criminal killing.
