2 Charged in Park Murder Linked to Drugs: Police

Two men were arrested Friday and charged with murder in the fatal shooting of a Montgomery County man in the Edgewood Neighborhood Park in Silver Spring, which may be linked to drugs.

Earl Junius Bennette, 24, and Shante Gladden, 22, both of an unconfirmed address, have been charged with first-degree murder and armed robbery, say Montgomery County Police.

Police dispatchers received multiple 911 calls for a shooting Oct. 8 and the sound of shots fired in the park, 13900 Robey Road in the Briggs Chaney area. Officers found Garrett Alexander McClees, 22, suffering from gunshot wounds.

McClees died from a gunshot wound to the torso at the scene.

The victim’s friends and family gathered Oct. 11 to mourn the 2011 Paint Branch High School graduate, who had recently returned to Maryland after living in California for several months. His friends and family described him as a free spirit and a young hippie.

“He touched so many lives with his wonderful personality and who he was. His free-spirited nature. Garrett was the light of my life,” McClees’ mother Alicia Arnold told WUSA. “We need to find out who did this to Garrett.”

A $10,000 reward was offered in the case and detectives received multiple tips that identified Gladden and Bennette as suspects in the shooting. Investigators say the suspects and victim knew each other and Bennette’s cell phone had been in contact with McClees’ cell on the day of his death.

The shooting may have been drug-related, police say, because of information they received during the investigation and drug evidence found at the homicide scene.

On Thursday, detectives obtained arrest warrants for Gladden and Bennette. Gladden was arrested Friday in Washington, D.C., with the assistance of the United States Marshals Fugitive Task Force; he remains in D.C. awaiting extradition to Montgomery County. Bennette was arrested Friday by Montgomery County Police in Silver Spring and was taken to the Montgomery County Central Processing Unit.

»Photos of Earl Bennette, left, and Shante Gladden, courtesy of Montgomery County Police