‘All about money and murda’: How Instagram tied into a fatal Durham shooting

Newly released search warrants offer a glimpse into how social media videos led to the arrests of two young men — including a 14-year-old — in the killing of a Raleigh man at a Durham bus stop.

Jaquari Henderson, 20, is charged with murder, conspiracy to commit murder and possession of a stolen motor vehicle in the July 20, 2023, shooting of Benjamin Francois Morris, 43, on North Miami Boulevard, The News & Observer previously reported.

Police say Henderson conspired with two minors — who were then 13 and 15 years old — although reports from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner suggest Morris was not the intended target.

In the year and a half between Morris’ death and Henderson’s indictment, a web of Instagram videos and a hastily abandoned gun led investigators to the three young men, search warrants show.

Shooting at bus stop

A Mercury Grand Marquis had been parked near the bus stop when a gray SUV slowly approached, then turned around and people in it began shooting, according to Morris’ autopsy report.

Surveillance footage from a nearby business captured an individual in a black balaclava and a green jacket with an orange hood lining hanging out of the front passenger window of a gray SUV, according to search warrants. Police identified that shooter as Henderson.

A second person, later thought to be the 15-year-old, stuck his right arm out of the SUV’s right rear window and also fired a handgun toward the bus stop, court documents state. That teenager was only identified by his initials and birth date in court records; it’s not clear if he’s been charged in the case.

Morris was struck once in the chest in the hail of bullets, according to his autopsy report. He was pronounced dead at a local hospital about 30 minutes later.

The license plate on the SUV showed it was a 2021 Kia Sorento stolen from a home on Ganyard Farm Way — about 2 miles from the crime scene — just hours before, police records state.

Police pursued the stolen Sorento but had to stop when the chase became too dangerous, according to search warrants. Seventeen casings and two projectiles from a variety of weapons were recovered at the crime scene.

Instagram videos

Live Instagram videos from several accounts began to circulate, with the first coming at 3:45 p.m. — less than 20 minutes after the shooting. That video reportedly depicted three young men in a car, with Henderson apparently driving, according to search warrants.

“Henderson looked at the camera, holding a black Apple iPhone as he simulated firing multiple rounds from a gun with his index finger,” a search warrant states.

The second video, posted at 4:20 p.m., allegedly showed Henderson wearing a black rubber glove on one hand and wiping his face with the other, holding a black pistol with an extended magazine in his lap, according to search warrants.

In the third video, which went live at 4:32 p.m., the 13-year-old could be seen making gang signs for the Eight Trey Gangster Crips, search warrants claim.

“[The teen] was ‘wiping his nose’ with his gloved hand’s index finger,” warrants state. “The ‘wiping your nose’ by extending an index finger or using the slide of a gun symbolizes taking out a rival gang member through either physical assault or shooting.”

The Eight Trey Gangster Crips is a national street gang that originated in Los Angeles “and has a reputation for a propensity for violence that includes several homicides, aggravated assaults, and robberies,” according to the U.S. Department of Justice’s Eastern District of North Carolina. The gang has operated in North Carolina for about 20 years.

An Instagram account reviewed by The News & Observer linked by search warrants to one of the teens shows him flashing stacks of $20 bills and marijuana in story highlights. “All about money and murda,” states one story caption posted about two months before the shooting.

Abandoned handgun

A few hours after the shooting, police saw the stolen Sorento on Laurel Avenue, just under 2 miles from the crime scene, and tried to stop it, according to search warrants. The driver fled north on Angier Avenue toward East Main Street. The Sorento was last seen traveling north on N.C. 147, then exiting onto Interstate 85 South.

About 10 minutes later, Orange County operators notified police that a 911 caller had reported someone in a silver SUV throwing a firearm out of the vehicle on I-85 South, search warrants state. Investigators found a black Polymer 80 firearm in the grass, roughly 25 feet from the roadway, near mile marker 166.

The firearm was later identified as a .45-caliber automatic Polymer 80 PF45 without a serial number, visually matched to the handgun seen in the Instagram live videos.

Ten minutes later, the stolen Sorento was located on the I-85 South on-ramp from South Churton Street in Hillsborough, according to court documents. The SUV was searched and taken to police headquarters for processing; two shell casings, one .40-caliber and one .45-caliber, were recovered from its interior.

Guns in 13-year-old’s bedroom

As summer stretched into fall, detectives filed and executed search warrants for the Instagram accounts. The case grew hot again Sept. 27, 2023, when the 13-year-old’s father discovered four handguns in his son’s bedroom and called 911, search warrants show. He told police he worried that the teen, a student at Sherwood Githens Middle School, was involved in gang activity.

Photographs and a short video provided by the teen’s father confirmed that he was one of the young men in the Instagram videos, according to search warrants. Ten days later, the father met with police to share that “he believes [his son] needs to be ‘locked up’ because [his son] is hanging out with the ‘wrong crowd,’” search warrants state. He gave police two cellphones reportedly belonging to his son.

Six days later, the teen was taken into custody at his middle school, though court documents don’t reveal what he was charged with. Juvenile cases are sealed in North Carolina.

Henderson remained in the Durham County jail without bail as of Saturday evening. The status of the two teens involved in the case isn’t clear.

This story was originally published February 9, 2025 at 7:00 AM.

Lexi Solomon

The News & Observer

Lexi Solomon joined The News & Observer in August 2024 as the emerging news reporter. She previously worked in Fayetteville at The Fayetteville Observer and CityView, reporting on crime, education and local government. She is a 2022 graduate of Virginia Tech with degrees in Russian and National Security & Foreign Affairs.