ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Orange County deputies have charged a second person with murder for a shooting they say started on social media.
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On August 9, deputies responded to a cul-de-sac on Holly Creek Road in Zellwood after a man called 911 saying he was shot. The responding deputies arrived to find 23-year-old Demonte Cherry dead from multiple gunshot wounds.
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The next day, deputies arrested the 911 caller, 19-year-old Malik Fisher, and charged him with first-degree murder.
Investigators say Cherry and Fisher had known each other from an ongoing social media dispute.
According to the sheriff’s office, eight days before the shooting, Cherry was on Instagram Live talking about friends of his who had recently been killed in Central Florida. Investigators say Fisher joined Cherry’s feed and began to “trash talk” his dead friends and threaten him.
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On the morning of August 9, deputies say Fisher and two other people were sitting in a car in the cul-de-sac on Holly Creek Rd. a few miles from Cherry’s home, smoking marijuana.
A witness told investigators that as they sat there, Fisher “excitedly” pointed out that Cherry was driving towards the cul-de-sac and that he said he’d “just shoot Cherry right now.”
Deputies say Cherry pulled into the cul-de-sac in an attempt to make a U-turn and leave the area when Fisher jumped from the back driver’s side of the SUV they were in, ran up to Cherry’s half-open driver’s side window, put the gun inside and fired at Cherry’s head and upper body at close range.
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According to the sheriff’s office, Cherry managed to open his driver’s side door and fire three rounds back in defense from his own gun, striking Fisher and a woman in the driver’s seat of the SUV.
Fisher and the woman who was shot ran from the scene on foot, but later reconnected with the third person who drove them both to a hospital.
Deputies didn’t identify the woman who was shot until Wednesday when she was also arrested and charged with first-degree murder and armed robbery. According to the sheriff’s office, 21-year-old Genesis Shamia Fisher is Malik’s sister.
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Investigators also found that Malik had gone back onto Instagram just after the shooting and streamed a live video of him showing off a gunshot wound to his leg and looking into the camera while repeatedly yelling “You f*** n**** gonna die boy!”
Deputies say they believe Fisher posted the message to Instagram for Cherry to see before he was aware that Cherry had died.
Investigators also noted that when Fisher called 911, he was heard saying “he was shot in the head,” which the dispatcher believed referred to his own injuries. Deputies later learned Fisher made that comment to a witness at the scene after he thought he’d hung up with 911 but unknowingly remained on the line.
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Cherry’s gun was never recovered. According to the sheriff’s office, responding deputies found a vehicle belonging to Cherry’s mother at the shooting scene and the vehicle Cherry was actually driving when the shooting happened back at his mother’s house. Deputies say Cherry’s mother has been uncooperative with that part of the investigation and denies knowing how the vehicles were moved.
Genesis Fisher was arrested on a warrant, which doesn’t include a narrative of exactly what she’s accused of doing and what led deputies to charge her now. She’s being held in the Orange County jail on no bond.
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