Domestic Argument Over A Mother’s Stimulus Check Leads To Quadruple Murder
The slaying of three adults Saturday and a child Saturday night (March 13) in an Indianapolis home was the result of an argument over a stimulus check, according to reports.
Police say Malik Halfacre believed he should receive half of his girlfriend and child’s mother Jeanettrius Moore’s $1,400 payment issued to Americans as a financial boost to get them through economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
“He wanted some of Jeanettrius’ tax money, stimulus money,” Wendy Johnson, a cousin Indianapolis station WXIN told the news station. “She had just got her money, and he wanted half of her money.
Wendy Johnson, a cousin who had spoken to Moore, told local Indianapolis station WXIN that Halfacre argued with her a day prior and “wanted some of Jeanettrius’ tax money, stimulus money. She had just got her money, and he wanted half of her money.” Johnson said that Moore told Halfacre that he would give him $450, but he demanded half of it.
“She said, ‘No, you don’t deserve any of this. I work. I take care of our child. You don’t do anything.’ “
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Moore later told Johnson that on Saturday evening she was outside looking after her car when Halfacre walked up and gave her an “evil look and walked off.”
Upon returning, police say Halfcre shot and killed Moore’s 7-year-old daughter, Eve Moore, her brother, 23-year-old Daquan Moore, her mother, 44-year-old Tomeeka Brown, and her cousin, 35-year-old Anthony Johnson. Additionally, Moore was wounded and Halfacre disappeared with her baby.
“Malik came back in the house asking, ‘Where’s the money?’ said Johnson, repeating the account Moore told her.
“They’re like, ‘What money? What? What are you talking about?’
“He said, ‘Where’s the money? Where’s the money?’”
Halfacre then started going through Moore’s purse, according to Johnson.
“Daquan was trying to save his sister. He was taking up for his sister,” she told the news station. “He stood up and said, ‘You cannot have the money. You cannot have her money.’ That’s what she said and pushed Malik, and Malik pulled out the gun and just started killing everybody.”
Johnson continued: “He shot Daquan first. He shot Anthony. He turned around, and he shot my Auntie Tomeeka. My Auntie Tomeeka said, ‘Malik!’ and he shot her again. He came back and shot Daquan for the second time and somewhere between little Baby Eve got hit somewhere and she was screaming, she was screaming.”
Johnson said that while Halfacre went to retrieve a baby bottle for their infant child, Moore ran for her life, knocking on neighbor’s doors and frantically asking for help.
Halfacre reportedly drove away with the child before IMPD officers arrived.
At the same time Moore and the officers conveined, her son Lorenzo Moore walked in the backdoor to find his brother, Daquan, and the rest of his family’s bodies on the ground.
“I seen all my family members in there on the floor dead,” said Lorenzo. “I could put the picture together of how everything went down and how everybody went.”
Lorenzo said he was in disbelief.
“I didn’t even know that that was my people on the ground suffering because they let a monster out of prison.”
Halfacre is an ex-convict who was released from custody in 2018 after he was accused of shooting a man five times on Indianapolis’ northwest side a year earlier. The release from prison came after he pleaded guilty to a lesser charge.
Several hours after the tragic shooting, the couple’s baby was recovered unharmed.
24 hours after the killing, following a four-hour-long SWAT standoff on the city’s east side, Halfacre emerged from a duplex in handcuffs after hiding in an attic to avoid tear gas that was fired at him.
The family is struggling to raise the funds to bury their loved ones. A GoFundMe page has been set up to help with the expenses and has already reached over $16,000 since Monday.
