Brookhaven man convicted in 2019 robbery
MEDIA COURTHOUSE » A Brookhaven man was convicted on more than two dozen counts Monday for a 2019 home invasion and robbery in which a 4-year-old child had a gun pointed to her head and a teenager was pistolwhipped several times.
Abdul Malik Shakur, 40, of Brookhaven, was found guilty on four counts each of robbery and unlawful restraint, two counts of aggravated assault, one count each of theft, burglary and kidnap, and numerous weapons and conspiracy charges.
Judge James Bradley, who heard the case during a bench trial last week and delivered his verdict Monday, also found Shakur not guilty on additional counts of robbery, kidnap, and kidnapping a minor.
Shakur, represented by defense attorney Michael Dugan, had been released from prison after serving 10 years about two months before the robbery on Oct. 5, 2019.
Assistant District Attorney Kristen Kemp said in opening statements that the robbery was a case of mistaken identity in which Shakur and another man entered a home on the 2400 block of West 13th Street in Chester Township looking to rob a drug house.
What they found instead was the resident, Devon Craig, along with his friend Anwar Sammons and Sammons’ two children. The victims had just returned from getting pizza and were planning to play video games at Craig’s house when they heard some commotion coming from a back window, according to testimony.
Craig said he went to the rear of his home and saw an arm sticking through a window. He went to lock the back door, but a man brandishing a firearm came into his home and ordered everyone onto the ground in the living room.
Craig said another man brandishing a knife also came inside and the two ransacked his home looking for drugs or money. The gunman, identified as Shakur, also pistol-whipped Craig 10 to 15 times, causing lacerations and abrasions, and hit Sammons and his 15-year-old son with the gun as well.
The teenager testified that he was struck on the top of the head and that his father instructed him to look down. He said he tried to keep an eye on his sister during the ordeal, and Sammons said the gunman had the pistol trained on her for two to three minutes.
“He put the pistol to my daughter’s head, told me if I don’t tell him where the stuff is, she could die right now, tonight,” said Sammons.
“She was petrified,” the teenager said.
Sammons said neither of the men were wearing masks and remained in the home for about 20 to 30 minutes, at one point taking his wallet. Eventually, Craig offered up his Toyota Tundra to get them out of the house.
Craig said the robbers made him strip and then went to take him with them, but he was able to fight them off in the hallway and shut them outside before Sammons moved a couch in front of the door and called 911.
Detective Patrick Mullen said the Tundra was located a few days later being driven by a woman in Glenolden, but she did not have any connection to the robbery or the suspects. No DNA or usable fingerprints could be lifted from either the truck or the windows outside Craig’s home, according to Mullen.
It was Sammons who gave police a break in the case when he called Mullen Oct. 10 and said he had spotted one of the men who robbed them in Chester driving a grey or silver Chevy and provided a tag number.
Mullen was able to identify the female owner of that vehicle and searched her social media posts, where he saw an individual matching the robber’s description and put together a photo array. Sammons “immediately” identified Shakur from that array, according to Mullen, and he was arrested the following month by U.S. Marshals.
Shakur, also known as Abdul Malik Abdus-Shakur, pleaded guilty in 2009 to attempted homicide and aggravated assault for his role in a 2006 attempted assassination of a known Chester drug dealer, according to Daily Times archives.
Shakur fired at least two shots at an occupied Pennsylvania State Police cruiser in that incident, narrowly missing the troopers inside. He was sentenced to seven to 20 years in state prison in 2009 and was released August 1, 2019, according to online records.
Kemp said the other suspect with the knife has not been identified. Sentencing is set for Dec. 14 pending a presentence investigation, and drug and alcohol and psychological evaluations.