Crime

NFL star’s half-brother who survived a drive-by shooting is now charged with murder

Accident or crime scene cordon tape, police line do not cross. It is nighttime, emergency lights of police cars flashing blue, red and white in the background Photo by Getty Images This is a stock image downloaded from Getty Images. It is a Royalty Free image. Getty Images | Royalty Free
Accident or crime scene cordon tape, police line do not cross. It is nighttime, emergency lights of police cars flashing blue, red and white in the background Photo by Getty Images This is a stock image downloaded from Getty Images. It is a Royalty Free image. Getty Images | Royalty Free

A Miami teen who survived a drive-by shooting three years ago — and who is the half-brother of star NFL running back Dalvin Cook — was arrested Wednesday and charged with robbing and killing a man, police said.

Police said Demarcus Cook, 18, traded gunfire with a man inside a car outside a home near Northwest Sixth Street and 31st Avenue at about 8 p.m. Tuesday. Neighbors called Miami police.

When they arrived, they found the man inside the vehicle had been shot. Nearby, they found Cook, who was also suffering from a gunshot wound.

The man who was killed, and who police haven’t named, was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital. Doctors couldn’t revive him. Police pieced together the sequence of events with the help of witnesses and surveillance video near the shooting scene.

Reached by phone Thursday, Tateanna Price, Cook’s mother, confirmed her son had been injured and arrested and said her daughter was also hurt during the incident. Police said Cook’s injuries were minor enough that they were able to take him to police headquarters and interview him.

“He’s not doing so good,” Price said of her son.

Cook, charged with first-degree murder and robbery, was booked into the Turner Guilford Knight correctional center in West Miami-Dade. Suspects facing murder charges can’t bond out of jail.

Before hanging up, Price confirmed that her son was the victim of a Little Haiti drive-by shooting three years ago.

Cook, only 14 at the time, was shot in the chest, but survived. Also injured was Cook’s 16-year-old friend. The two survived and Price spoke out about the incident, saying all her son was doing was playing basketball when two people wearing masks showed up and shot them.

This violence needs to stop. Our kids need to get an education and stop this,” she told Miami Herald news partner CBS4 after the 2019 shooting.

She also confirmed at the time that her son is the half-brother of Minnesota Vikings running back Dalvin Cook, a rising NFL star who also shined at Florida State University and locally at Miami Central High School.

Four years ago, Dalvin Cook’s uncle was shot and injured during a drive-by shooting in Opa-locka. Anthony Jones, who also starred at Miami Central and went on to play for the Florida International University Panthers, was shot in the face and back while visiting a friend. He survived.

This story was originally published August 4, 2022 at 11:59 AM.

Charles Rabin
Miami Herald
Chuck Rabin, writing news stories for the Miami Herald for the past three decades, covers cops and crime. Before that he covered the halls of government for Miami-Dade and the city of Miami. He’s covered hurricanes, the 2000 presidential election and the Marjory Stoneman Douglas mass shooting. On a random note: Long before those assignments, Chuck was pepper-sprayed covering the disturbances in Miami the morning Elián Gonzalez was whisked away by federal authorities.
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