Police have arrested two men for allegedly murdering a male victim on Feb. 26 in a residential neighborhood south of the Melrose Avenue shopping district.
Police said they linked the two suspects, who allegedly knew the victim, to the crime through undisclosed evidence and worked with the FBI’s Fugitive Task Force to locate and arrest them. The suspects were identified as Robert Aikens, 22, of Stone Mountain, Georgia, and Shidreyius McClinton, 20, a resident of Atlanta. The body of the victim, Nazeer Ejua Defares, 24, of Decatur, Georgia, was found by citizens at approximately 6:40 p.m. near the corner of Gardner Street and Rosewood Avenue. Capt. Shannon Paulson, of the LAPD’s Wilshire Division, attended a virtual neighborhood crime meeting on March 2 held by the Melrose Action Neighborhood Watch and provided details about recent homicides in the community. In the murder last Friday, authorities believe the suspects allegedly shot the victim during a robbery inside a moving vehicle and pushed his body out of the car. The victim was an “up and coming rapper from Georgia” and the two suspects were also involved with the rap music business, Paulson said. A dispute over money allegedly occurred inside the vehicle. She did not know why they were in the Melrose area.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office filed murder charges against Aikens and McClinton on March 2 and they remain in custody.
Two Georgia men charged in Melrose area murder - Park Labrea News/ Beverly Press
