Police: Suspect wasn’t taking his medicine
Man faces trial in October slayings of his mother and sister at Allentown apartment.
Weeks before gunning down his mother and sister outside an Allentown apartment building over what could be considered a petty argument, Zakiiy Altariq Carson had stopped taking his psychiatric medicine, a detective testified during a court hearing Friday morning.
Carson, who said he was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, told Detective Erik Landis he had been arguing with his mother, Latricia Ezell, during the day Oct. 28, and it escalated when his sister, Ashley Campfield, came to the apartment building on N. Fifth Street to pick up her son, Landis said.
Carson's issue, the detective testified, was the “perceived treatment” of his nephew, Campfield's 3-year-old son.
Carson, 35, of Allentown, called 911 to report what he had done, admitting to dispatchers that he had shot and killed his mother and sister, Landis testified. During a preliminary hearing Friday, two detectives testified about the double killing and without any argument from Carson's attorney, District Judge Jacob Hammond ordered Carson to stand trial on two counts of criminal homicide.
The hearing was sparsely attended by mostly police officers and a few relatives. As he heard testimony, Carson showed little emotion, but at one point did request a tissue from a deputy to wipe away tears.
Allentown police were dispatched at 6:12 p.m. to the apartment building at 950 N. Fifth St. after 911 dispatchers got a shocking call from a man who identified himself as Carson, claiming to have killed his mother and sister.
Patrol officers arrived, found the dead women and took Carson into custody without incident.
Allentown police Detective Steve Fiorillo found the two women at the rear of the building, which is about 50 feet from Sumner Avenue and the baseball diamond at Jordan Park.
One woman was next to a car in the parking lot and the other partially in the rear door of the building and partially on the concrete steps. The women were later identified as Ezell, 52, and Campfield, 29, he said.
Fiorillo said police recovered surveillance footage from the scene and a 9 mm handgun was found in a kitchen cabinet in the apartment where Ezell and Carson lived.
Fiorillo never spoke to Carson, but Landis, one of the lead detectives in the case, interviewed him hours after the shooting.
“He was cooperative from the get-go,” Landis said.
Carson told Landis that he had been arguing with his mother during the day about the treatment of his nephew, whom his mother cared for while the boy's mother was at work. Campfield arrived to get her son and the arguing continued, Carson told Landis.
Around 6 p.m., Carson went outside and smoked a cigarette, but when his mother, sister and nephew walked out of the building to leave, he pulled a gun and went after them, Landis testified.
First, Carson shot his sister next to the rear door of the apartment building and her son fled toward his grandmother, Landis testified.
Carson then shot his mother and the child ran back to his mother, Landis testfied. Carson returned to his sister and shot her again, and she died partially in the building and partially out, Landis testified.
During this time, Campfield's frightened son “was running back and forth between the victims,” Landis said.
Carson scooped up the child, called 911 and admitted what he had done. Another resident in the building also called for help, Landis said.
Under cross-examination from Carson's public defender, Earl Supplee, Landis testified that Carson brought up his mental health history during the nearly two-hour police interview.
Carson told Landis and Detective Eric Stauffer, the other lead investigator in the case, that he had been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder and was being treated with an antipsychotic medicine, Landis testified.
Landis said Carson told him he stopped taking the medicine weeks earlier because of how it affected him. Landis said police recovered psychiatric medicine prescribed to Carson at the house.
Carson's relative, Don Darity of Newark, N.J., told The Morning Call in late October that Ezell, his niece, had talked to him about her son's strange behavior.
He said Carson moved in with his mother in Allentown four years ago to get away from his troubles in New Jersey. Carson has a lengthy criminal history in New Jersey with at least eight arrests between 2006 and 2011 in Essex County, N.J., most for dealing drugs. In a 2006 arrest, he was charged with unlawful possession of a handgun. In Allentown, he faced assault charges in 2014, but that case was later dismissed.
During a family cookout over the summer in Harrisburg, Darity said, Ezell secretly told him that her son was acting strangely and exhibited signs of paranoia, saying that someone is out to get him.