Kriti Mehrotra
When Darius “DK” Kirkland was found dead inside a friend’s apartment on September 19, 2020, all his loved ones were shaken to the core owing to the life and potential lost. The 23-year-old father of one was reportedly trying to turn his life around following a few years on the wrong side of the law, but things did not pan out as he expected. All these aspects of who he really was, along with the details of what precisely transpired and why, have since been carefully chronicled in A&E’s ‘The First 48: Old Habits.’
Darius Kirkland Was Fatally Shot in the Back
Although Darius “DK” Kirkland was born in the late 1990s in St. Louis, Missouri, he primarily grew up around Claremore and Tulsa, Oklahoma, with a big, loving family. He reportedly had an incredible support system in his father and his five siblings, only for him to channel that same energy toward them as well as his own little one by 2020. He had a young son for whom he wanted to be present and provide, which is why he hoped to turn over a new leaf after serving more than a year in prison for grand larceny.
According to the aforementioned episode, Darius also had a religious awakening while he was doing time, which led him to find peace and purpose as he gave himself to his faith. In fact, by the time he was to be released, the one-time ‘American Idol’ auditionee had completed the prison’s ministry program and dreamt of establishing himself as a gospel rapper. He was thus determined to go straight and excited to return to his family before pursuing what he believed was his calling, but alas, he was found dead just a few months later.
It was 3:58 am on September 19, 2020, when local authorities and emergency services rushed to Edenwood Apartments at 2171 North Hartford Avenue in response to a shooting call. When they arrived at the scene, a man later identified as Isaiah Anderson was standing outside with a bullet wound to one arm and a graze on the other, so he was rushed to the hospital. Darius was then discovered lying face down inside a bedroom of one of the 192 apartments in the building – he had a bullet wound straight to his back and had sadly already passed.
The Initial Investigations Into the Fatal Shooting Pointed the Blame on Darius Kirkland
The first thing officials noted when they began examining the scene upon realizing they had a homicide was the number of bullet holes and shell casings all around the apartment. They knew three bullets had definitely been fired due to the injuries on the two men, but there were six 9mm handgun casings scattered in the bedroom and one in the hallway just outside. The walls and mirror were also clearly riddled with bullet holes consistent with the casings, and the door to the bedroom was broken/splintered, meaning there had been a struggle.
Investigators further observed a small pool of blood on the floor of the small closet in the bedroom, which they believed belonged to Isaiah. They thus hypothesized he and Darius likely got into a fight that turned violent before turning fatal, but they couldn’t talk to the survivor at the time as he was heavily medicated after being treated. Therefore, they began canvassing the area and spoke to the 911 caller – an 18-year-old woman who revealed she was the one who resided in the apartment and was there with a friend during the shooting. The caller and her friend, identified as Adalis Nears, were subsequently taken to the police station for questioning, where the former initially placed all the blame on Darius.
The caller told detectives that she, Darius, Adalis, and her boyfriend, Isaiah, were hanging out before the men went outside to meet other people. She claimed she then overheard Darius talk about allegedly robbing Isaiah, so she went inside and relayed the information to Adalis, who quickly told her boyfriend. She alleged an argument ensued, during which Darius allegedly began waving a gun around and managed to get Isaiah into her room, following which the bullets were fired. She also added that she and Adalis were outside the bedroom door throughout, trying their best to open it and maybe stop things from escalating, but to no avail – so, when things clearly got out of hand, she frantically dialed 911.
Darius Kirkland Was Killed in an Apparent Robbery Gone Wrong
When investigators stepped outside the interrogation room after the caller’s statements, they learned she had made a peculiar statement in the police car while being transported. She had apparently said something along the lines of her friend Adalis would go to jail if she told the whole truth, so she was immediately questioned about the entire ordeal again. That’s when she revealed that Darius was like a brother to her, and it was Adalis who fired a bullet through the door at him because she didn’t want him to hurt her boyfriend. When Adalis was interrogated, she placed all the blame on Darius as well, giving a statement similar to the caller’s initial one, but she also mentioned another young man.
Adalis alleged that while she had shot a gun earlier in the day with a friend, she was not involved in this ordeal and didn’t know anything about weapons in general. She also told detectives she stood up for her boyfriend at every step, telling Darius that if he wanted to shoot Isaiah, he would have to shoot her, too. Then, she stated that it was the caller’s male friend who was also at the scene who picked up the guns and left before giving them permission to search her vehicle. While officials followed up with Isaiah and searched her car, they learned from forensic analysts that all the bullet holes inside the bedroom were in an upward trajectory. Investigators noted that it suggested the possibility that shots were fired from a lower position near the floor.
By this point, Isaiah had managed to tell investigators that he was just hiding in the closet after the victim appeared to target him and didn’t even have any weapons on him. Officials also heard from a witness at the building that a local man was claiming to have possession of the guns used in the incident and was describing it as a robbery gone wrong. According to the record, the witness alleged to detectives that the man was alleging that he, Darius, the 911 caller, and Adalis had all planned on robbing Isaiah that fateful night. However, as per the statements, the man claimed things went wrong when the victim showed up with a gun because no one had expected it, so Adalis shot him when things seemed to go out of control. All of the others involved in the ordeal had also vehemently alleged that Darius seemed to be drunk or high on drugs like PCP at the time.
Adalis Nears Is Currently Incarcerated in an Oklahoma Prison
When detectives questioned the 911 caller again, she alleged that the shooting occurred during a robbery plan gone wrong, claiming Adalis was the architect of the same. On the flip side, Adalis confessed to shooting Darius to protect her boyfriend while still maintaining there was no plan between them to rob Isaiah. She also consented to a search of her phone in connection with the same, but revoked it as soon as investigators stepped outside the room. Adalis was formally charged not long after, but it took over 3 months for things to move forward as an unrelated homicide finally led to the third man.
Investigators reported that the man corroborated aspects of the caller’s statement, telling police about the robbery plan, identifying Adalis as the person who shot Darius, and admitting he took the weapons from the apartment. The weapons were never recovered, so she was the only person arrested in connection with Darius’ death. Almost a year after the incident, in August 2021, she pleaded guilty to one count each of first-degree manslaughter and injuring a public building, and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Today, at the age of 26, Adalis is serving her sentence at the mixed-security Mabel Bassett Correctional Center in McLoud, Oklahoma.
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