LaGrange man charged with murder, concealing death after Sunday shooting

Published 4:55 pm Thursday, January 24, 2019

A LaGrange man was arrested for a murder that was discovered Tuesday on Spring Street. Marquaveous Deshun Harris, 19, was arrested Tuesday for murder, aggravated assault, armed robbery and concealing the death of another person, according to LaGrange Police Department press release.

Officers from the LPD found Malenko Cooley, 18, dead in his vehicle around 12:58 a.m. on Tuesday, according to the press release. Cooley had died from a gunshot wound to the chest.

LPD Lt. Dale Strickland said Cooley was originally reported missing from Valley, Alabama, by family members on Monday.

According to the press release, the LPD and Newnan Police Department determined in a joint investigation that Cooley was shot and killed during an armed robbery and aggravated assault that occurred in Newnan on Sunday around 3 a.m.

Newnan officers responded to a call about a person being shot at the Newnan Crossing Apartments on Parkway North. Officers discovered a victim shot multiple times in the abdomen, according to a press release from the NPD.

Cooley and Harris had visited the resident to ask him to keep a gun for them. The resident told police that he felt Cooley and Harris were going to rob him, so he started fighting Cooley.

While Cooley and the victim were fighting, Harris drew his pistol and began firing at the resident, according to the NPD press release. Cooley was reportedly shot in the midst of the armed robbery, but was able to get up and flee the scene.

The victim was taken to an Atlanta hospital for treatment and is in stable condition, according to the NPD.

Strickland said Harris turned himself in on Wednesday at the LPD.

“We received information through our investigation that he was one of the last people known to been with the victim, and we began searching for him and other people that he had been with recently,” Strickland said. “Through that, we were able to get [him] here to the police department.”

Harris is currently being held at Troup County Jail for concealing the death of another. The Newnan Police Department is securing warrants for murder, aggravated assault, armed robbery and other related charges.

“The crime of murder did not occur here in LaGrange, however, the concealing the death of another, which is a felony, occurred here when [Harris] drove down the vehicle to Spring Street and left the victim of the crime in Newnan and the car there without calling police or anybody else and leaving the vehicle,” Strickland said. “We went from having one murder this year to again having no murders.”