This email comes as a hurtful message to the brotherhood. I was just informed that we have lost one of our own. Bro. Mark Lawson b.k.a. Quiet Storm (4-Gamma Iota-Sp97) was murdered late Friday night. He was carjacked, stabbed several times, and then his body was dumped on the side of the highway of Route 80 in Roxbury.
An eternal “OWWWWW-OWWWWW” goes out to Mark. You are lost but will never be forgotten.
Please say a prayer for him and everyone who was close to him.
For more information on the incident, read the article below:
All-night search at arsenal yields suspect in fatal stabbing
BY ASHANTI M. ALVAREZ, (
www.bergen.com)
A Newark man fatally stabbed an acquaintance and dumped his body beside Route 80 in Morris County on Saturday morning, leading to a seven-hour manhunt that involved police and military helicopters searching through the Picatinny Arsenal, authorities said.
Police dogs tracked Earl Betterson to a utility shed on the U.S. Army installation, where he was found in possession of a knife, police said. Betterson, 22, was charged with murder and other offenses.
The chase began about 1:47 a.m. Saturday, four minutes after the New Jersey State Police discovered the body of 26-year-old Mark Lawson by a guardrail on the eastbound side of Route 80 in Roxbury Township. The East Orange man had been stabbed several times, including once in the chest, said Lt. Paul Kalleberg of the Morris County Prosecutor's Office.
Police saw a 1999 black Ford Explorer speeding eastbound past milepost 32 in Roxbury, less than four miles from Lawson's body, and began the pursuit, authorities said. Several police cars chased the SUV as it exited the highway and headed toward Rockaway Township. There, the vehicle plowed into a chain-link fence, bounced off several trees, and came to a stop onU.S. Army property, Kalleberg said.
Betterson and Mecca Thomas, both 22 and of Newark, fled the SUV and made their way into a wooded area on the fringe of the installation, police said. Picatinny, which is surrounded by Rockaway Township, covers 6,500 acres and contains two lakes. About 3,000 employees there conduct scientific and engineering research for the Army.
Police caught Thomas almost immediately. Betterson, who police think was the driver, fled on foot.
More than 100 law enforcement officers from the FBI, the state police, the Morris County Prosecutor's Office and Sheriff's Department, the Department of Defense Police, and the Roxbury, Rockaway, and Mount Olive municipal police departments secured the perimeter of the arsenal.
"The strategy at that point was to contain movement of the suspect within Picatinny," said Joseph A. Devine, chief of investigators for the Prosecutor's Office.
State police, National Guard, and New York City police helicopters swooped down on Picatinny, authorities said. And at daybreak, the search intensified with two K-9 teams closing in on the suspected killer.
At 8:25 a.m., dogs found Betterson holed up in the shed on an unused section of the complex, Kalleberg said. He was removed without incident and brought to the state police Netcong barracks. The arsenal grounds were reopened at 9 a.m.
"At no time was the local population in danger or sensitive material compromised at Picatinny Arsenal,'' the Morris County Prosecutor's Office said in a statement.
Betterson was charged with murder, eluding, possession of a weapon, and burglary. He was taken to the Morris County Correctional Facility where he was held on $500,000 bail.
Thomas was charged with eluding, obstructing governmental administration on federal property, and conspiracy to obtain a controlled dangerous substance. The final charge, authorities said, is because he told investigators one of the goals of the night was to obtain cocaine.
His bail was set at $15,000.
Detectives on Saturday were still trying to sort out what led to the stabbing, but believe both suspects and the victim knew one another and spent Friday night with an acquaintance in Mount Olive.
Authorities said Thomas and Betterson had been using cocaine, but that there were no signs of the drug during a preliminary autopsy of Lawson's body.
Kalleberg said it appears that Betterson stabbed Lawson several times inside the Explorer and dumped the body shortly after the killing.
"We're trying to determine the motive," Kalleberg said.
At no time did authorities consider the pursuit and search a threat to national security, Devine said.
"This was strictly a criminal investigation at all times," he said, adding that the response was "professional" and "proportionate" and that lines of communication between local police and Army officials have been open and amicable in the wake of Sept. 11.
Police are also trying to find out details about the lives of the three people before Friday night.
"We don't know at this point what the victim did. We have at least established that both the suspects were unemployed," Kalleberg said.
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