Camden man charged in 2000 killing

U.S. authorities have charged a suspected Camden drug dealer under a rarely used federal murder statute that carries a potential death sentence.

The suspect, Larry Reddick, was arrested Saturday by state troopers as he was leaving a Camden High School basketball game.

Reddick, 34, had been charged Thursday in a sealed complaint with a fatal shooting that took place in 2000. The complaint, which described Reddick as being part of a Camden drug organization, was unsealed after his arrest.

Reddick appeared briefly in federal court in Camden yesterday and was held pending a bail hearing Friday.

He was accused of shooting Brian "Pepe" Parker, 33, in the Tioga Bar in Camden nine years ago. Parker was targeted, according to the complaint, because he was suspected of stealing two ounces of crack cocaine from a drug stash house.

The stash house, in an apartment above a barber shop on Mount Ephraim Avenue, was known as "The Honeycomb," the complaint said.

Parker also angered the drug crew when he beat his girlfriend, whose father was a member of the organization, the complaint said. Other members of Reddick's crew were identified only by their initials.

The drugs in The Honeycomb stash house were "owned" by a dealer identified as H.J. That dealer hired Reddick to kill Parker, the complaint said.

Reddick was investigated by the FBI's Violent Crimes Task Force, which focuses on large-scale drug organizations that often are responsible for numerous killings.

The task force, including the FBI agent who signed the Reddick complaint, Robert Sweeney, has taken down some of Camden's most notorious drug gangs in recent years.

Authorities used a federal murder statute for the first time in Camden in 2006, when they took down another large drug organization.

Two men were charged with murder in that case, but prosecutors eventually decided not to seek the death penalty. Both men were convicted.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Smith said yesterday that prosecutors had not decided whether to seek the death penalty against Reddick.