Alleged gunman calls police after fatal shooting on Long Island

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Wednesday, January 23, 2019
Alleged gunman calls police after fatal LI shooting
Kristin Thorne has the latest on the fatal shooting in Amityville.

AMITYVILLE, Long Island -- A suspect who apparently called the police himself is in custody after a man was fatally shot while driving in Long Island, New York Tuesday morning.

Police say they received a 911 call from 34-year-old Marc Cheatham around 7:40 a.m., saying someone had been shot in Amityville.

Officers responded to the scene, where the investigation determined that the caller himself was the shooter.

Cheatham was arrested a short distance away. Not long after, they found the 39-year-old victim shot in his car.

Michael Jackson was rushed to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Authorities do not believe the shooting was random, and say the suspect knew the victim, though they aren't saying how.

"We're examining and we're investigating the relationship between the two of them," Suffolk County police Detective Lieutenant Kevin Beyrer said. "We believe there was some sort of relationship between them. We don't believe, we have no reason to believe right now, that this was random."

Jackson also crashed into a parked car after being shot. That vehicle was unoccupied.

Authorities say a gun they believed to be the murder weapon was recovered at the nearby family home of Cheatham.

The suspect and the victim lived a block away from each other. Police say Cheatham was on foot when he shot at Jackson.

Cheatham is charged with second-degree murder.