A member of the Crips street gang is in custody and another is wanted for the slaying of a Lackawanna College student in the Hill Section on Sunday morning.
Marlon Clotter, 21, 1024 Capouse Ave., shuffled into a room at the Scranton Police Department dressed in a blue zip-up hooded sweatshirt and jeans, hiding his face from cameras before his arraignment Thursday afternoon.
The man police believe fired the shots that killed 22-year-old Rahsan Crowder of Harrisburg is still on the loose, although police think he is in the Scranton area.
Ryan Harding, 18, 519 Taylor Ave., Scranton, is considered armed and dangerous, police said. Anyone with information on his whereabouts, or additional information on the shooting, should call Scranton police at 348-3134.
Mr. Harding is wanted on charges of first-degree murder, third-degree murder, aggravated assault, firearms not to be carried without a license and possession of a firearm prohibited.
Mr. Clotter was charged with criminal conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, criminal conspiracy to commit third-degree murder, first-degree murder and third-degree murder, according to a criminal complaint.
Scranton detectives interviewed some 30 witnesses in the case and pieced together surveillance video from at least eight different cameras in the area.
From that, police learned Mr. Crowder and a friend attended a party in the Hill Section before walking to Vine Street and Monroe Avenue early Sunday, where they passed Mr. Harding and Mr. Clotter, who called out, "Do you want problems? What are you looking at?"
Neither Mr. Clotter nor Mr. Harding is a Lackawanna College student, police said.
A heated verbal exchange followed, during which Mr. Harding pulled out a gun, pointed it at Mr. Crowder and his friend and fired, shooting Mr. Crowder in the right thigh, police said.
The argument continued on the 700 block of Vine Street, where Mr. Clotter goaded Mr. Harding, saying, "Shoot him. Shoot him."
Mr. Harding shot Mr. Crowder in the chest with a gun that witnesses described as a .22 caliber pistol with a wooden grip and a charcoal gray barrel, according to the complaint. It is not known if police located the gun. They would not comment on any physical evidence in the case.
Mr. Harding and Mr. Clotter fled the scene on foot, with additional people, to Mr. Clotter's apartment, where Mr. Harding attempted to hide the gun in a light fixture, witnesses told police.
Mr. Clotter was arrested early Thursday and taken to Lackawanna County Prison, where he is being held without bail. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for Wednesday at 10 a.m.
The investigation is ongoing and there is a strong possibility of further arrests, Chief Graziano said.
Latoni Crowder, the victim's mother, got the call Thursday that police believe they have identified the men who killed her son, the same day she went to the graveyard to pick out her son's cemetery plot, leaving her with a sense of closure.
"It kind of makes me feel better. He wasn't a fighter," Ms. Crowder said. "It was a senseless choice that they made."
Contact the writer: ksullivan@timesshamrock.com, @ksullivanTT on Twitter