Details in westside Erie shooting death emerge

 

Convicted drug dealer Chikuyo Bayete and his brother Shanti flashed handguns as they charged into a westside Erie apartment early Monday morning, Erie police said. The Bayete brothers demanded money from three people inside the residence in the 1800 block of Walnut Street, police said, and then struck those people with their fists, the handguns and stun guns. The brothers fled with $3,677, police said. They didn't get far. Shanti Bayete, 31, of the 200 block of West 21st Street, was shot once in the head and died around 2 a.m. in the street near the apartment. Chikuyo Bayete, 33, who was free on parole in a drug case, was arraigned Monday night on eight felony charges, including robbery, conspiracy to commit robbery, simple assault and theft. Police continued to investigate the homicide on Tuesday. No one had been charged with shooting Shanti Bayete as of Tuesday night. "We are still conducting interviews and processing evidence," police Lt. Kirk Werner said. "We are still trying to piece together what happened here." Two men who live in the apartment, Jarod Tracy, 19, and Jordan Tracy, 18, were arraigned Monday on drug charges, including possession with intent to deliver, criminal conspiracy to deliver and possession of drug paraphernalia. The two were in possession of 16 plastic bags of marijuana and two bags of cocaine, police said. Jarod Tracy and Jordan Tracy are each being held in the Erie County Prison on $25,000 cash bail, while Chikuyo Bayete is in the prison on $125,000 cash bail. Preliminary hearings have been scheduled for all three men on Nov. 30. Shanti Bayete's death is the second homicide in Erie in the past three weeks and the sixth this year. There were 13 homicides in the city at this time in 2010. Chikuyo Bayete was sentenced in March 2004 in Erie County Court to five to 10 years in state prison, according to court records. He pleaded guilty in January 2004 to three drug counts, including the felony of delivery. Chikuyo Bayete was paroled in April 2009 after serving his minimum five-year sentence, and his maximum sentence expires on March 14, 2014, according to the state Board of Probation and Parole. The board declared Chikuyo Bayete delinquent effective Sept. 28 for failing to report to his parole officer. Erie police in March 2003 charged Chikuyo Bayete after seizing 101 rocks of crack cocaine, with a street value of $50,000, during a raid of his then-residence in the 1000 block of West 11th Street, police said at the time. Police accused Chikuyo Bayete of bringing cocaine to Erie from his native Philadelphia by bus every two weeks. Police accused Chikuyo Bayete of distributing the drugs to low-level dealers on the city's east side.