WASHINGTON — A D.C. man will spend 24 years behind bars for a brazen mid-morning shooting in a Southeast apartment building back in 2021. A judge announced the sentence on Tuesday.
Shaka Haltiwanger was found guilty earlier this year of second-degree murder while armed and related charges for shooting 39-year-old Anthony Kelley in the back on Sept. 10, 2021, killing him.
Prosecutors say Kelley went to his father's apartment building on 29th Street in Southeast D.C. to take him to the grocery store. His father had suffered a stroke and required his son's assistance.
When Kelley arrived, he reportedly found Haltiwanger sitting on his father's living room couch. Haltiwanger had been regularly selling Kelley's father crack cocaine, prosecutors said.
Kelley kicked Haltiwanger out of his father's apartment and the two argued in the hallway stairwell until Kelley began walking away. As he made his way to the building's front door, Haltiwanger took out a 9mm "ghost gun" from his backpack and shot Kelley in the back.
While the gun was equipped with a 50-round magazine drum, it jammed after the first shot and Haltiwanger ran. According to prosecutors, Haltiwanger was on release pending gun and drug charges when he killed Kelley.
Haltiwanger and others then called multiple people who witnessed the shooting over a dozen times using blocked phone numbers as the witnesses talked with police at the apartment building.
He was arrested on Sept. 30, 2021, and has been in custody since. In addition to the 24-year sentence, Haltiwanger will serve three years supervised release.