On a late summer morning in Washington, D.C., a simple act of filial duty set in motion a tragic chain of events that would end a life. On September 10, 2021, 39-year-old Anthony Kelley, a man from Upper Marlboro, Maryland, arrived at his father's apartment building in the 1400 block of 29th Street SE. His intention was a kind one: to take his father, who was unable to drive after suffering a stroke, to the grocery store.
The time was just before 11:30 a.m., a time of day when the city is usually bustling with the routines of daily life.
Upon entering his father's apartment, Kelley was met with a scene that would ignite a fatal confrontation. He discovered Shaka Haltiwanger on the living room couch, a man who had been regularly selling crack cocaine to his father. A heated argument erupted between Kelley and Haltiwanger as Kelley physically removed him from the apartment. The dispute spilled out into the hallway and stairwell of the building. As the argument continued, Kelley eventually began to walk away, heading towards the front door of the building, seemingly ending the confrontation.
What happened next was a sudden and brutal escalation. Haltiwanger, instead of leaving, pulled a 9 mm “ghost gun” equipped with a 50-round magazine drum from his backpack. As Kelley walked away, Haltiwanger fired a single shot, striking him in the back. The gun jammed after the first shot, preventing further bloodshed at that moment, and Haltiwanger fled the scene. Emergency services were called, but by the time they arrived, Kelley showed no signs of life and was pronounced dead at the scene.
The investigation into Anthony Kelley's murder led authorities to 22-year-old Shaka Haltiwanger of Northeast, D.C. He was arrested on September 30, 2021. In the aftermath of the shooting, it was discovered that Haltiwanger and others had repeatedly called eyewitnesses with blocked numbers while they were speaking with law enforcement. At the time of the murder, Haltiwanger was on pretrial release for a separate gun and drug case. On March 22, 2023, a jury found Shaka Haltiwanger guilty of second-degree murder while armed and possession of a firearm during a crime of violence. He was subsequently sentenced to 24 years in prison, with three years of supervised release to follow.
