By DON FLETCHER
News Staff Writer
Decareus Keywon Mallory “Duke” Andrews, a 28-year-old Bay Minette man wanted in the shooting death of an Atmore man, had avoided capture since Memorial Day weekend but is finally behind bars.
Andrews, who reportedly vowed to family members he “wasn’t going to jail,” is accused of shooting 21-year-old Dyrontae Booker of Atmore outside a house party at a Daphne Road residence in Bay Minette.
Bay Minette Police Department (BMPD) investigators said Booker was shot several times by Andrews, who reportedly came to the party looking for the Atmore man after the two had earlier argued over a girl. A BMPD officer who was nearby and heard the shots, reportedly saw Andrews running from the scene of the fatal shooting.
BMPD officials reported that Andrews has a “long history of gun-related crimes,” including at least two prior arrests and at least one conviction for first-degree assault. He was taken into custody last Thursday, June 26, at a house in Mobile, by members of the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force.
Bay Minette Police Chief Al Tolbert Jr. told reporters the first phone call investigators made after the arrest of the violent criminal was to Booker’s family.
“(Andrews) is a danger to society. He has proven that,” Tolbert said. “The most important thing is this brings closure to the family. This arrest is one step closer for them in their healing process and to get justice.”
The former fugitive, who at the time of Booker’s shooting was out on bond from an unrelated case, is charged with one count each of murder and being a certain person forbidden to own or possess a firearm.
He remained in the Baldwin County Correctional Center at midweek, under a $1 million bond ($750,000 on the murder charge, $250,000 on the weapons charge).