Tyreek Larkins, an 18-year-old Black male from the Bear/Glasgow area of Delaware, was killed on June 24, 2016, during a shooting at the Apple Chase Apartments near Newark. At approximately 4:30 that afternoon, Larkins and two other men were sitting inside a Nissan Maxima parked in front of the 2200 building on Ashkirk Place. A gunman approached the vehicle and fired into it, striking Larkins with a single gunshot.
In the confusion following the shooting, the Nissan left the apartment complex and subsequently became involved in a crash near Pulaski Highway and Scotland Drive. Emergency responders transported Larkins to Christiana Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. Police treated the shooting and the related traffic collision as separate but connected investigations while detectives worked to identify the person who had approached the parked vehicle and opened fire.
Investigators eventually identified 17-year-old Mark Johnson Jr., a Newark resident, as the suspected shooter. Detectives obtained charges against him and, working with the Philadelphia Police Department, located him around noon on July 7, 2016, inside a residence in the 7200 block of Tulip Street in Philadelphia. Johnson was taken into custody without incident and held while awaiting extradition to Delaware. He was initially charged with first-degree murder, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, and possession of a firearm by a person prohibited.
The case was later resolved through a plea rather than a murder trial. Johnson admitted that he fired the shot into the vehicle occupied by Larkins and the two other men. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. In December 2017, a Delaware Superior Court judge sentenced him to eight years in prison, followed by six months in a halfway house and two years of probation.
