The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police on Sunday arrested a man accused of murdering four family members and shooting a fifth following a dispute over stimulus money. Neighbors said Malik Halfacre, 25, shot the mother of his child and killed four of her family members Saturday night at a home on North Randolph Street in Indianapolis.
Halfacre is facing preliminary charges of murder, attempted murder and robbery in connection with the quadruple homicide, police said.
Halfacre on Friday had an argument with Jeanettrius Moore, the mother of his child, about the $1,400 stimulus check issued to assist Americans to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, Wendy Johnson, cousin of Moore, told WXIN. “She had just gotten her money, and he wanted half of her money,” Johnson told the news station.
Moore, who works at a beauty supply shop, gave Halfacre $450 but he left unsatisfied, Johnson said. On Saturday evening, he came back to the house demanding to know where the stimulus money was, Johnson said. Halfacre then began searching Moore’s purse in front of her family members. An argument ensued, and in the process, he pulled out a gun and opened fire, injuring Moore and killing her mother, Tomeeka Brown, 44; brother, Daquan Moore, 23; her cousin, Anthony Johnson, 35; and her daughter, Eve Moore, 7, Johnson said.
Halfacre fled with Moore’s other daughter (the one she shares with him), Johnson said. Moore, injured, ran to a neighbor’s house to ask for help. “She was frantic,” neighbor Craig Jackson told news station WISH. “She was hysterical. She was in pain. She said her baby daddy shot her, and he shot her, her mother and the kids. She said she was the only person who got away.”
Jackson called the police, who started searching for Halfacre. The following morning, the couple’s missing child, Malia, was found, unharmed. Halfacre was also arrested Sunday evening following a four-hour-long stand-off with a SWAT team at an east Indianapolis home.