Delaware State Police have announced the arrest of a second alleged gunman in connection with the slayings of two people, including an 18-year-old Northeast Philadelphia woman, in a botched home invasion near Dover on Oct. 17. But the investigating agency has shed no new light on the mysterious circumstances of the violence.
Troopers and officers representing multiple law enforcement agencies captured Saleem Shabazz, 21, in Norristown, Pennsylvania, on Oct. 22. Court records show that Shabazz is being held at Montgomery County Prison in lieu of $1 million bail, pending extradition proceedings. An extradition hearing date has not been announced. Records show that he resides in West Philly.
Delaware State Police did not respond to a request for further information about the Shabazz arrest. The News Journal of Wilmington reported that authorities captured Shabazz at about 5 p.m. last Thursday on the unit block of E. Jacoby St. in Norristown.
Meanwhile, his alleged accomplice, Matthew Kyle Harrington, 23, of the 200 block of Passmore St. in Lawndale, remains in custody at Bucks County Prison and is scheduled for an extradition hearing on Nov. 19 in Doylestown. He surrendered to police in Buckingham Township on Oct. 18, one day after the slayings.
Shabazz and Harrington were wanted for the murders of former Abraham Lincoln High School student Haley Henwood, along with Clifton Leager, 52.
Delaware State Police have said that Shabazz and Harrington burst into Leager’s single home in Dover’s Rodney Village suburb shortly after 1:38 a.m. with guns drawn. Leager struggled with the intruders, one of whom shot Leager fatally. Gunfire also struck Leager’s adult son, who nevertheless chased the fleeing intruders from the home.
During a brief foot pursuit, more shots were fired, one of which struck Henwood fatally, according to an initial police report. Leager died at the scene, while Henwood was taken to a local hospital and pronounced dead a short time later. Paramedics took Leager’s son, whose name was not disclosed, to a local hospital for treatment. He was released from the hospital that morning and has not been charged with a crime.
Leager’s daughter was also in the home at the time and made the initial 911 call, police said. She was not injured.
During the early stages of the investigation, a Delaware State Police spokesman told news reporters that Henwood had accompanied Shabazz and Harrington to the home that morning, but the spokesman provided no further details. When asked later by a Northeast Times reporter to elaborate, the spokesman declined, citing the ongoing investigation.
A viewing and funeral for Henwood were held last Friday at McCafferty Funeral Home in Mayfair. ••
