$2G reward offered for arrest in 2021 shooting death of Mastic Beach man
Marcel Arrington, 18, was shot to death outside a house on Bayview Drive in Mastic Beach on Oct. 26, 2021. Credit: SCPD
A $2,000 reward is being offered for information leading to an arrest in last year’s shooting death of an 18-year-old Mastic Beach man found outside with a gunshot wound to the torso, according to the Suffolk County Police Department.
The man, Marcel Arrington, was found shot on Oct. 26 around 9:10 p.m. outside a house on Bayview Drive.
On Wednesday, the police department announced the award, to be paid within 72 hours of an arrest.
Following the shooting, the police department said Arrington was believed to have been targeted, but the department provided no additional information on possible suspects or a motive.
The department's press office did not respond to a message Wednesday morning seeking comment.
Last year, Arrington's father, Lamarr Wooten, said his son graduated from high school in June and had a masonry job. He had saved his money and put it all into his "prize car," Wooten said.
"He bought a car, the shell for like $400. He bought a motor. He paid a mechanic … and he did it all on his own. Buying the parts and everything and I was about to put it on the road for him," Wooten said of Arrington, his only child. "He's driven. Whatever he wanted to do he really did."
Wooten said he planned to finish up his son's car project.
"He was just somebody that cared about people," Wooten said, adding about the fatal shooting of his son, "sometimes it happens to people that, you know, don't really deserve it."
The tip line for Crime Stoppers, the organization that pays the reward, is 800-220-TIPS.
Crime Stoppers is an independent organization. Updated federal tax returns, as required by law to be filed, couldn't immediately be found on the IRS website; but its 2017 return says the nonprofit organization paid out about $32,575 in rewards that year.
Suffolk had 33 reported homicides in 2020 and 13 reported solved. In Nassau, there were 23 reported homicides, and 12 reported solved, according to the nonprofit Murder Accountability Project.
A 2018 Washington Post analysis found that about two-thirds of homicide arrests are made within a month of the killing, and for those cases that remained unsolved after a year, 5% ultimately led to an arrest.
Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.
