Schenectady Police: Fourth person charged in connection to Ieasha Merritt murder

SCHENECTADY – A fourth person has been charged in connection with the July 2020 shooting that resulted in the death of Ieasha Merritt, police said Friday.

Dasaun Justin Parsons, 24, of Schenectady, was arrested Friday morning on one count of second-degree murder, as well as one count of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, police said.

Parsons was taken into custody by members of the U.S. Marshal Service in Latham, police said.

Previously charged in the case were Tevin Alvarez, 30, Xzobiaire Green, 19, and Warren Cusaac, 34, police said.

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Alvarez and Cusaac also face a murder charge, while Green faces an attempted murder charge, records show.

Charging paperwork previously filed in one of the cases indicated authorities believed as many as four people were involved.

Merritt was not the intended victim, but was caught in the line of fire as three masked gunmen emerged from a vehicle and began shooting across the parking lot. More than 10 people were in the parking lot at the time, police have said.

Cusaac was previously accused of driving three other people to the area of 880 Albany St. July 5, 2020 “with the intent of shooting an individual across an occupied parking lot: striking (Merritt) in the head,” causing her death, Cusaac’s charging paperwork reads.

The first arrests in the case came in November, more than a year after Merritt was killed and more than five months after police and Merritt’s family appealed for help from the public in solving the case.

At a June 2021 press conference, Merritt’s mother Shanta Merritt told of how her daughter was everything to her and Shanta Merritt pleaded for anyone with information to come forward. Ieasha Merritt was the mother to a son.