PBSO: LAKE WORTH MAN KILLED OVER SHOES
‘Anyone who steals from KP is gonna die,’ suspect quoted.
LAKE WORTH — Despite his face being plastered on wanted posters across North Florida, McKenzly Edwards Jr. evaded Alachua authorities — and a half-dozen attempted homicide charges — for more than six months.
During that time, records indicate Edwards moved to Palm Beach County, sold drugs out of a Lake Worth house and got a place just south of West Palm Beach with his girlfriend.
But the 24-year-old’s stint of freedom ended last week when he reportedly killed Warren Hallback over a few pairs of shoes.
Palm Beach County sheriff ’s authorities and the U.S. Marshals Service took less than 48 hours to find him.
They didn’t have enough to arrest him in Hallback’s killing, but they did have a warrant out of Alachua in the Jan. 15 shooting that injured three adults and two children. Edwards faces a sixth attempted homicide charge in that incident because a bullet pierced a 20-monthold’s car seat, barely missing the toddler. Edwards’ younger brother, Kenzel Lashod Edwards, 22, faces charges in the shooting as well.
By Sunday, Palm Beach authorities had enough evidence to charge Edwards in Hallback’s death.
Edwards appeared Monday morning before Judge Ted Booras on that charge and was ordered to remain in the county jail as his case moves through the court system.
That homicide case likely will have to be resolved before he is transferred to Alachua, about 15 miles northwest of Gainesville, to face the attempted homicide charges, authorities said.
It’s unclear exactly how long Edwards was in South Florida, but at a news conference Saturday, Alachua authorities said Edwards likely was there for “quite some time ... possibly ever since the incident (in Alachua) occurred.”
Sgt. Jesse Sandusky, spokesman for Alachua police, said he’s relieved Edwards is off the streets.
“He’s a dangerous person,” Sandusky said.
Stolen shoes
On Thursday afternoon, a raging Edwards stormed into the South D Street home where he had run his drug dealing business for months. He demanded that everyone leave.
“Anyone who steals from KP is gonna die,” one witness heard Edwards, known as “Kenny Poo Poo” or “KP,” say. He reportedly waved a pistol as he swore to find the person who stole a few boxes of his shoes.
Edwards suspected Hallback was the thief, though sheriff ’s records don’t indicate whether the 25-year-old actually was.
Regardless, Edwards allegedly kept his promise to kill. When Hallback showed up by the home about 15 minutes later, Edwards fired six shots into him, PBSO said.
“Chuck Taylor,” as Hallback was known, was dead.
Witnesses told sheriff ’s authorities they saw Edwards run from the home wearing a camouflage jacket with pink stripes. Authorities found that jacket when they arrested him in his West Palm-area home on Saturday, records state. They also found his fingerprints on a box of ammunition in the Lake Worth home. Edwards is a convicted felon, records show, and cannot legally have either weapons or ammunition.
Records indicate that the Lake Worth home is known for drug and prostitution-related activity. Neighbors told The Post they’re tired of the violence that has taken hold of the area.
“I hope this is the last one,” a man who asked to be identified only as Juan said about the killing.
‘Too sweet’
Hallback was, simply put, “too sweet,” his mother said.
Lisa Huggins’ middle child — the third of five — was selfless to a fault, she said. He went through life with an unwavering trust in everyone he met, she said.
And that meant he often ended up with people she considered to be “the wrong crowd.”
Huggins remembers the principal at Palm Beach Gardens High School calling her in one day to discuss Hallback’s friends. The principal told her Hallback was too polite, and too smart, to be getting involved with that crowd.
Hallback ended up graduating from a military high school in Georgia, his mother said. He attended trade school and got a job as a handyman. He promised his mother that one day he’d build her a house.
He was a hard worker who juggled construction work with a job at a food truck and doing tattoo art, his mother said.
She knew he was doing well for himself, but wanted him out of Palm Beach County. Days before he was killed, Hallback told his stepfather he’d warmed to the idea of moving to San Diego to live with his mother and stepfather.
But then Huggins got a frantic phone call Thursday from a woman screaming that “Chuck” had been killed.
She didn’t know who “Chuck” was until the woman said “Bop,” the nickname she’d given to her son years ago.
She called everyone she knew in Florida to see if it was actually true. Then she and her husband hopped on the first flight out of California.
In Palm Beach County, Huggins said, she heard countless stories about her son. His boss called to tell her how hardworking he was. One of his friends said she trusted Hallback to watch her children. A businesswoman said he was the first person she’d call when she needed help setting up an event or doing odd jobs around her home.
“It was a shock. I just couldn’t believe it,” Huggins said. “He had such a big heart.”