On the evening of February 10, 2022, just three days before his 35th birthday, Joshua Mantel Hannah, a male known affectionately as Jonezy, was shot inside the Somers Point Village Apartments on Mays Landing Road. Emergency services responded to a 911 call around 8:27 p.m. and found him suffering from a gunshot wound. He was rushed to the Trauma Unit at AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center in Atlantic City, but he ultimately succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced deceased. An autopsy later confirmed that the cause of death was a gunshot wound to the torso and the manner of death was a homicide.
The investigation into the shooting quickly focused on a suspect. The morning after the incident, a significant police presence was noted at a residence in the Zion Park area of Egg Harbor Township, which was later confirmed to be connected to the investigation.
By July 2022, the Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office publicly identified 20-year-old Tyreek Crawford of Egg Harbor Township as the alleged shooter and charged him with murder and related weapons offenses. However, Crawford had become a fugitive from justice, and a public appeal was made for any information regarding his whereabouts.
After a months-long search, the U.S. Marshals Service located and apprehended Tyreek Crawford in Vermont in early November 2022. He was subsequently jailed and awaited extradition back to New Jersey to face the charges against him. In addition to the murder charge, it was revealed that Crawford also had an outstanding gun case from 2020 and faced drug charges from a warrant that was issued the day after Hannah's death.
Following his extradition, Tyreek Crawford was indicted by a grand jury. In March 2023, he appeared in court and pleaded not guilty to the charges of murder and other offenses related to the death of Joshua Hannah. He remains in the Atlantic County Justice Facility as the legal proceedings in his case continue.
