Police: Allentown man, 35, admitted killing mother, then sister
An Allentown man called 911 on Sunday, identified himself and then told a dispatcher that he had shot his mother and sister, who a witness said was holding her 2-year-old son at the time.
According to a criminal complaint. when Allentown police arrived, they found the women dead and took Zakiiy Altariq Carson into custody without incident.
Police said Carson, 35, admitted shooting his mother, Latricia Ezell, 52, and sister, Ashley Campfield, 29, outside Ezell’s apartment at 950 N. Fifth St. Carson was charged Monday with two counts of criminal homicide and committed to Lehigh County Jail without bail.
Campfield was holding her 2-year-old son when she ran away from her brother after he shot their mother in the parking lot behind the building, according to a neighbor who said she heard all and witnessed some of the shooting.
Edna Rivera said Campfield was shot in the back, dropping the child, and died in the doorway of the back entrance to the building, which is about 50 feet from Sumner Avenue and the baseball diamond at Jordan Park.
“I saw her body here and I freaked out and I went that way,” Rivera said, pointing down the hallway that leads to the front entrance of the apartment building. “As I was going that way, the police were trying to get into the building, so I let them in.”
According to the complaint:
A man called 911 at 6:12 pm, identified himself as Zakiiy Carson and told the dispatcher he killed his mother and sister. Carson gave his address and police arrived and took him into custody without incident.
Carson said he had been arguing with the two women and went outside to smoke a cigarette. When the women walked outside to leave, he shot them, the complaint said.
According to Rivera, Carson had been arguing with his sister because he wanted to use her car. At some point, Carson apparently took her keys and attempted to leave in the car, but was stopped by the women, Rivera said.
The argument continued in the parking lot, next to Campfield’s car when he pulled out a gun, she said.
“He shot the mother first and killed her, right over there,” Rivera said, pointing to a spot in the parking lot, where the car had been parked, “and the daughter tried to run in here with her 2-year-old.”
Lehigh County Coroner Scott Grim ruled the deaths homicides.
Rivera, who has lived next door to Ezell for about eight years, said the shooting shocked everyone in the building, especially because of how such a petty argument between siblings escalated into such violence.
Rivera said she had not heard any arguing between Carson and his mother, who lived together in Apartment 103 in the eight-unit apartment building.
She said the daughter lived elsewhere in the city, but was frequently at the building because her mother watched her child.
Rivera described Ezell as a hard-working mother who took care of everyone in the family.
“She would get up every morning, snow, rain, ice and walk to the bus stop at 6 in the morning,” she said. “And she would get home around 5 and by that time her daughter would come over and bring the baby.”
Ezell worked at the Blue and Grey Cafe, a cafeteria on the Moravian College campus. Word of her death hit the campus on Monday morning and a school chaplain sent out a campus-wide email to offer condolences and offer support for Ezell’s co-workers and students, according to school spokesman Michael Corr.
On a Facebook post, the Moravian College dining services posted: “We are all processing the loss this morning of our energetic and funny coworker Latricia Ezell. Please keep Latricia’s family and friends in your thoughts and prayers.”
Carson has a criminal history, mostly in New Jersey, according to court records. He was arrested at least eight times between 2006 and 2011 in Essex County, N.J., most for drug dealing. 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.
His uncle, Don Darity, of Newark, said Carson moved in with his mother in Allentown four years ago to get away from his troubles in New Jersey.
“I think my niece [Ezell] was trying to help him; that’s why he was there,” Darity said Monday.
The family had gathered with other relatives this summer at a cookout in Harrisburg and everything seemed fine on the outside, however Darity said that Ezell secretly told him that her son was acting strange and exhibited signs of paranoia, saying that someone is out to get him.
Rivera, the next-door neighbor, recalled one time where the normally soft-spoken Carson pointed to the sky behind the apartment building and commented that the “FBI is watching us.”
Rivera said she last saw Carson on Saturday when they both went to the front of the building to smoke a cigarette. Nothing seemed off, she said, as they puffed away.
“Who would have thought that this would happen. They were my next-door neighbors,” Rivera said.
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