Terri Sanginiti

The News Journal

Three of four males who planned to rob some unnamed associate last week during a drug deal in the parking lot of the KFC in Newark have been charged with robbery and assorted other offenses, police said Tuesday.

The fourth man – identified as 20-year-old Marcus Johnson, of Newark – was fatally wounded last Thursday night when the botched robbery went awry.

The gunman fled afterward with others in a dark-colored four-door sedan toward Marrows Road. Police initially identified a second vehicle involved in the incident as a light-colored SUV, but have since located that vehicle and determined it is not connected to this crime.

The parties involved in Johnson's killing are still at-large and unidentified, police said.

The incident unfolded about 6:13 p.m. in the parking lot of the KFC at 1365 Marrows Road where officers were called in response to a shooting victim with multiple gunshot wounds, said Lt. Mark Farrall.

The victim, later identified as Johnson, was rushed to Christiana Hospital where he was pronounced dead of his injuries.

It is the first homicide in Newark this year.

An investigation determined the three males who accompanied Johnson to the meeting fled right after the shooting.

They were identified Tuesday as Dariel T. Pankins, 21, of the 200 block of Bell Ringer Court in Newark, Issac Chattin, of the 5500 block of Heritage Court in Milltown, and Karel Blalock, both 17, of the 500 block of J Oakdale Road in Newark.

Each of the trio was charged with first-degree robbery, first-degree attempted robbery, two counts of possession of a firearm during a felony and conspiracy, Farrall said.

Both Pankins and Blalock were also charged with possession of a firearm by a person prohibited.

The foursome went to KFC to meet "an individual known to them," said Farrall, declining to release any other details of the slaying.

According to court records, the group was going "to attempt to get weed from an unknown person."

Johnson, who had armed himself with a semi-automatic rifle, was fatally shot by an unidentified person while his three associates left him behind and fled.

The investigation is continuing as detectives attempt to identify the gunman and his friends.

In August, Pankins was arrested during a traffic stop by county police when he was found in possession of six bags of marijuana weighing 4.2 grams and 25 Alprazolam (generic Xanax) pills. He was charged with various drug crimes.

In July 2011, Blalock was arrested on charges of escape after conviction after he he left a juvenile facility for a home visit to his mother's Newark home and escaped out a bathroom window while there. He was arrested by state police a day later.

Pankins was committed to Young Correctional Institution after failing to post $252,000 bail.

Both Chattin and Blalock are being held in the New Castle County Juvenile Detention Center in lieu of bails of $82,000 and $102,000 respectively.

Contact Terri Sanginiti at (302) 324-2771 or tsanginiti@delawareonline.com