By: Najla Alexander
Authorities in Atlantic County announced that Kalief Lyons, 35, of Galloway Township, was charged with murder and associated weapons offenses related to an incident that occurred on May 9, 2024, in Pleasantville.
Lyons is in custody pending a detention hearing, officials said.
According to officials, on May 9, at approximately 11:02 p.m., the Pleasantville Police Department received a shot spotter alert for multiple gunshots in the area of 9 West Pleasant Avenue.
Officers arrived and located Baseem Taliaferro, 38, inside 9 West Pleasant Avenue, first-floor apartment, with a gunshot wound to his chest, officials stated.
Authorities say he was pronounced deceased while on scene.
Officials said a witness stated an argument had occurred between Lyons and several other individuals in the area of 9 W. Pleasant Avenue approximately twenty minutes before the shooting.
Following the argument, officials say, Lyons left the area, but surveillance captured him walking back towards the rear of 9 W. Pleasant Avenue wearing a ski mask.
Officials say Lyons was then observed walking away from the area of the shooting approximately two minutes after and without wearing the ski mask.
Lyons was arrested by the Galloway Township Police Department approximately two and a half hours after the homicide and was found to be in possession of a 9mm handgun and a large quantity of narcotics, officials said.
According to officials, Lyons was arrested wearing the same clothing that he was wearing on the surveillance video going to and coming from the scene of the homicide.
Ballistics evidence confirmed the handgun recovered from Lyons was the same that was used to kill Taliaferro, authorities say.
Officials said Lyons had previously pleaded guilty on March 5, 2024, in front of the Honorable Bernard E. DeLury, Jr., P.J.Cr., to second-degree Certain Persons not to Possess Firearms.
His recommended sentence was eight years in N.J.S.P. with a mandatory period of parole ineligibility of five years, officials say.
Officials stated that the defendant was released by the court from the Atlantic County Justice Facility to home detention without a bracelet pending sentence over the State’s objection.
Lyons’ sentencing date for this charge is scheduled for May 28, 2024, officials said.
The certain person's charge stems from an incident that occurred in Galloway on November 30, 2022, where police responded to a call that a male subject, later identified as Lyons, had brandished a handgun, accoridng to officials.
Later that day, authorities say, police located the handgun in a vehicle Lyons previously occupied.
Officials said the handgun had an illegal large-capacity ammunition magazine with 13 illegal hollow point ammunition rounds in the magazine and one round in the chamber.
Lyons was also found to be in possession of 75 wax folds of suspected heroin and five small rocks of suspected crack cocaine, officials stated.