Malikah McLaughlin, a 26-year-old Black woman from Atlantic City, was walking along the first block of South Bellevue Avenue during the early morning hours of August 28, 2022. At approximately 1:09 a.m., she was approached by men who had arrived in a dark Infiniti sedan with a silver-colored hood. Surveillance footage from a nearby residence reportedly showed three men getting out of the vehicle before one of them pursued McLaughlin as she attempted to run.
She fell to the ground, and the gunman continued firing at her before returning to the waiting car.
Atlantic City police officers responded to a 911 call reporting gunfire and found McLaughlin lying unresponsive in the street with multiple gunshot wounds. Some initial reports said she was pronounced dead at the scene, while subsequent accounts stated that she was transported to a hospital and pronounced dead there. An autopsy determined that she died from multiple gunshot wounds and classified her death as a homicide. The Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office Major Crimes Unit and the Atlantic City Police Department began a joint investigation.
As the suspects fled, another person reportedly fired at their Infiniti, striking the rear of the vehicle and wounding one of its occupants. Approximately four minutes later, the car arrived at AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center’s City Campus, where Lester Robinson got out with a gunshot wound to his back. Investigators used residential surveillance footage, witness statements, telephone information and other evidence to connect Robinson and two other men to the vehicle and the fatal attack.
Robinson was arrested on August 31, 2022. He was initially charged with conspiracy to commit murder and several weapons offenses, including unlawful possession of a handgun, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose and possession of a weapon by a person prohibited from having one because of a prior conviction. He was held in the Atlantic County Justice Facility while the case proceeded.
The investigation later led authorities to Quamel Schaffer of Millville. He was arrested in October 2022 and charged with murder. Court records described him as one of the three men allegedly involved in the attack, and he was ordered detained. Phillip Hayes was identified as the third accused participant, but he remained a fugitive after a warrant was issued for him on October 5, 2022.
On December 6, 2022, an Atlantic County grand jury indicted five people in connection with McLaughlin’s killing. Hayes and Robinson were indicted on first-degree murder, first-degree conspiracy to commit murder, unlawful possession of a handgun, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, hindering apprehension and possession of a weapon by a prohibited person. Schaffer was indicted on first-degree murder, first-degree conspiracy and several weapons charges, including possession of a firearm by a prohibited person.
Two women, Monica Gonzalez of Atlantic City and Quataisa Harrington of Millville, were also indicted. They were not accused of taking part in the shooting itself but were charged with third-degree hindering apprehension, alleging that they assisted or attempted to protect people connected to the crime after McLaughlin was killed.
Hayes remained wanted for more than seven months. On May 19, 2023, Atlantic City police officers located and arrested him on the outstanding murder warrant. His capture meant that all three men accused of participating in the shooting had been taken into custody. Publicly available reports describe the indictments and arrests but do not establish that any of the defendants have been convicted. The murder, conspiracy, weapons and hindering charges therefore remained accusations unless resolved through later guilty pleas or verdicts that were not identified in the available reporting.
McLaughlin’s death brought another devastating loss to a family that had already experienced fatal gun violence. Her younger brother, Michael McLaughlin, had been shot and killed at the age of 17 in 2018 while fleeing a dispute that erupted during a dice game. In that earlier case, Rashaad Norwood pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter and received a 25-year prison sentence. Four years later, the family was again grieving as authorities built a case alleging that Malikah McLaughlin had been deliberately confronted, chased and repeatedly shot on an Atlantic City street.
