{"id":19316,"date":"2020-08-24T14:57:42","date_gmt":"2020-08-24T18:57:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/?p=19316"},"modified":"2020-08-24T16:59:32","modified_gmt":"2020-08-24T20:59:32","slug":"suspect-charged-in-st-marys-co-murder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/2020\/08\/24\/suspect-charged-in-st-marys-co-murder\/","title":{"rendered":"Suspect Charged In St. Mary&#8217;s Co. Murder"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>(LEXINGTON PARK, MD) \u2013 Maryland State Police have arrested and charged a suspect in connection with the murder of a man found shot this past weekend in St. Mary\u2019s County.<\/p>\n<p>The suspect is identified as Malachi A. Banks, 18, of Lexington Park, Md.\u00a0 After consultation with the St. Mary\u2019s County State\u2019s Attorney\u2019s Office, State Police investigators have charged Banks with first degree murder and second degree murder.\u00a0 Banks was located early yesterday morning at a residence in the 21000-block of Hancock Drive in Lexington Park.\u00a0 He was taken in for questioning and charged with murder late last night.\u00a0 He is currently being held in the St. Mary\u2019s County Detention Center without bond.<\/p>\n<p>The victim has been identified as Dyante L. Battle, 32, of Capitol Heights, Md.\u00a0 An autopsy at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner determined his manner of death was homicide and the cause was multiple gunshot wounds.<\/p>\n<p>Shortly before 10:30 p.m. on August 22nd, troopers from the Leonardtown Barrack were dispatched to a call for shots fired in the area of Enterprise Road and N. Essex Drive, in Lexington Park, Md.\u00a0 Upon arrival in the area, they found the victim in a wood line and observed he had sustained what appeared to be multiple gunshot wounds.\u00a0 Troopers and responding St. Mary\u2019s County emergency medical services personnel provided emergency care.\u00a0 The victim was transported by ambulance to MedStar St. Mary\u2019s Hospital where he was later pronounced deceased.<\/p>\n<p>A perimeter was established around the area, with the assistance of deputies from the St. Mary\u2019s County Sheriff\u2019s Office.\u00a0 Additional state troopers who had been working a crime suppression patrol were already in the area and assisted.\u00a0 The Maryland State Police Homicide Unit responded to conduct the investigation and State Police crime scene technicians conducted evidence collection and scene processing.<\/p>\n<p>During the weekend, investigators conducted numerous interviews and served multiple search warrants as part of the investigation.\u00a0 Information and evidence developed during the investigation led to the identification of the suspect as being involved in the murder.\u00a0 A motive remains under investigation.\u00a0 Additional charges are possible.\u00a0 State Police investigators have not ruled out the possibility that others may be involved.<\/p>\n<p>The investigation remains active and ongoing.\u00a0 Anyone with information about this murder is urged to contact Maryland State Police at the Leonardtown Barrack at 301-475-8955.\u00a0 Callers may remain anonymous.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2020\/08\/Banks-Malachi.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-19325\" src=\"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2020\/08\/Banks-Malachi-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2020\/08\/Banks-Malachi-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2020\/08\/Banks-Malachi.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Malachai Banks<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(LEXINGTON PARK, MD) \u2013 Maryland State Police have arrested and charged a suspect in connection with the murder of a man found shot this past weekend in St. Mary\u2019s County. The suspect is identified as Malachi A. Banks, 18, of Lexington Park, Md.\u00a0 After consultation with the St. Mary\u2019s County State\u2019s Attorney\u2019s Office, State Police<a href=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/2020\/08\/24\/suspect-charged-in-st-marys-co-murder\/\">&nbsp;&nbsp;Read the Rest&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[23,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-barrackst-leonardtown","category-press-releases"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/70"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19316"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19316\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19326,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19316\/revisions\/19326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}