A man accused of shooting and killing a 17-year-old kid at a Harrisburg junction last summer was apprehended on Thursday, authorities said.
Harrisburg police apprehended Rashad L. Neal, 30, after a standoff in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Police allegedly apprehended Neal after he barricaded himself inside a home with a gun.
Neal has been at large since September, when he was accused of illegal possession of a firearm for discharging the handgun that killed Antoine Byers Jr. on August 12, 2024, on the 1700 block of Regina Street in Allison Hill.
Last year, District Attorney Fran Chardo concluded that Byers’ shooting was in self-defense, and he will not prosecute any homicide or murder charges. Court filings reveal that Byers died shortly after firing three shots at a girl he was fighting with on the street that night.
An affidavit of probable cause filed against Neal on September 25 provided the following information:
At around 6:28 p.m. on Aug. 12, surveillance cameras from a nearby property captured footage of a gray Nissan Altima approaching the junction. Less than a minute later, two guys stepped from the car, each holding a weapon and aiming it at Byers.
Court filings eventually identified Neal as one of the armed individuals who exited the back seat.
The other armed man had a license to carry, but Neal did not. According to court filings, the home security cameras recorded around four “muzzle flashes,” or shots fired, from Neal’s gun but none from the lawfully owned weapon.
Following the shooting, the males got back into their Nissan and raced south on North 17th Street. PennDOT data indicates that police discovered the Nissan at its registered address the following day. The armed front-seat passenger and his girlfriend were inside the car when police arrived to confiscate it, according to court filings.
During an interview with police, the man’s girlfriend confirmed driving him, Neal, and her sister, Neal’s girlfriend, to 18th and Regina on the evening of August 12.
The woman told officers that they went to the crossroads to see her best buddy. When they arrived, the companion was fighting with Byers, according to the affidavit. According to court filings, the guys exited the car and watched Byers fire three shots at the woman’s friend.
The man with a carry permit drew his .40-caliber Glock handgun and attempted to kill Byers, but the weapon did not fire, he later told police.
He believed Neal used a 9-millimeter handgun he had under the Nissan’s passenger seat to kill Byers because the gun was gone when he looked for it after the shooting, according to the affidavit. The man told the police that he didn’t allow Neal to use the gun because he didn’t have a concealed-carry permit.
He informed the officers that he had planned to stay and report the shooting, but when Byers’ friends picked up his fallen gun, Neal decided to leave. According to court filings, the individual stated that he had no idea what Neal did with his rifle or where he was after August 12.
Officers responding to the gunfire call saw Byers lying near the junction. Antoine Byers Sr., his father, informed PennLive that his son had sustained at least five gunshot wounds. The scene pronounced him dead.
According to court filings, after the homicide, Neal disabled his phone number and Facebook account. Cellphone data eventually revealed that Neal’s phone arrived at 18th and Regina minutes before Byers’ death and moved to North Carolina four days later on August 16, according to the affidavit.
Court documents state that Neal’s 2017 murder conviction in North Carolina prohibits him from possessing firearms. WRAL News charged him and two other guys with fatally shooting a man in Durham in November 2015.
It’s unclear what prompted Neal to go to Pennsylvania upon his sentence release. Property records suggest he relocated to Steelton in June.
Antoine Sr. previously told PennLive that his son died while hanging out in a city neighborhood he had warned him to avoid. TTK, a street gang based in the assassination area, belonged to Antoine Jr. A derelict property and sidewalks between 18th and Regina are spray-painted with “RIP 22 blxst,” a reference to Byers’ nickname.
Antoine Sr. stated on PennLive that while he does not approve of his son’s actions prior to his death, he believes they provoked him to resort to violence. He then revealed on Facebook Live that his son had gotten into a fight with the same girl the night before at a balloon release for Na’Ryah Wright, 13, who was fatally shot in Harrisburg around 19th and Derry streets.
“I’m extremely disappointed in both my son and the girl who attacked him,” Antoine Sr. stated. “She came to fight another girl.”My son was the victim of something she wanted to do. This hurts me. But I understand Pennsylvania’s laws.”
Antoine Sr. stated that the district attorney provided a video of his son’s deadly shot with him, which showed the girl assaulting his son’s face, his friends attempting to pull him away, and his son breaking free to shoot at the girl. Then Neal, who was in a car, opened fire, scattering his son’s companions, who had no idea where the gunshot was coming from, according to Antoine Sr.
Antoine Sr. told PennLive that the accusations gave him some satisfaction, even though murder wasn’t one of them.
He expressed his happiness at the arrest of the person responsible for his son’s death. “He fled so he knew he was doing something wrong.”
Neal is also facing charges for carrying a firearm without a license, fleeing to escape arrest, theft, and receiving stolen items. He has yet to face charges.
