Man charged with murder in fatal shooting of acquaintance outside Willingboro home

A 29-year-old South Jersey man has been charged with first-degree murder and gun offenses in the fatal shooting earlier this month of an acquaintance outside the victim’s Burlington County home, authorities said Wednesday.

Kwacey Owens is accused of firing a gun into the head of Barry Barino, 28, outside the rear door of Barino’s Willingboro home on the first block of Maplewick Lane about 1:30 a.m. Oct. 8. Barino was pronounced dead at the scene.

The investigation revealed that Barino and Owens, of the first block of Echo Lane in Willingboro, were acquaintances, and that Owens had been inside the victim’s home a short time earlier before luring him outside to shoot him, the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office said in a news release. The motive for the killing remains under investigation, it said.

Owens was arrested Tuesday in the Burlington County Jail in Mount Holly, where he has been held since being arrested last week on a related weapons charge, authorities said. The weapon believed to be used in the shooting, a .45-caliber pistol, was recovered inside Owens’ home, the Prosecutor’s Office said.

It was not immediately known Wednesday whether Owens has an attorney.