Friends and family remembered 15-year-old Marion Wheaton as a smart, goofy, and loyal student at Wichita’s West High School. On the evening of November 6, 2019, an ongoing dispute that had been festering on social media was supposed to be settled with a fight, but the confrontation ended in tragedy for the teenager.
Marion, a Black / African American male, went with a 15-year-old friend and a 16-year-old friend to McAdams Park in Wichita, Kansas, to meet another group of teens for the
planned confrontation. Around 6:00 p.m., a dark-colored SUV approached them in the 1400 block of North Ohio. Instead of a fistfight, the situation turned deadly. A 15-year-old and an older teen, Malick Garrett, got out of the vehicle. Police said Garrett then fired a handgun multiple times, striking Marion once in the upper body. Emergency responders rushed Marion to a hospital in critical condition, but he did not survive his injuries.
Wichita police investigators quickly determined the shooting was not a random act of violence but the direct result of the prearranged conflict. Authorities noted that some of the individuals involved in the dispute were documented gang members and that multiple handguns were recovered during the investigation. The day after the shooting, police arrested 18-year-old Malick Garrett in connection with Marion's death.
Garrett was initially charged with second-degree murder and held on a $200,000 bond. The case concluded when Garrett, then 21 years old, pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter. In January 2023, a judge sentenced him to 61 months, just over five years, in prison for his role in the killing.
