Man accused of killing teen has first court appearance

A detention hearing will be held Thursday for a man accused of fatally gunning down a teen in Atlantic City. Rahseed Norwood, 21, was just released from a halfway house in June after serving more than 2½ years in prison for an aggravated assault that happened when he was 16, court records show. He has his first appearance in Atlantic County Superior Court via video Monday, accused of murder in the death of 17-year-old Michael Shaheed McLaughlin. Known to his loved ones as DC Keal, the teen died last Thursday in a daylight shooting outside the Carolina Village Apartments in Atlantic City. "He was only 17," the teen's stepmother, Nicole Cheatham, said outside the courtroom. "You just don't know what he would have become." Keal's father, also Michael McLaughlin, said his son was a good-natured person who cared for his family and enjoyed sports. "My son was just a lovable person, good-hearted," McLaughlin said. Keal would have been going into his senior year in high school in Cumberland County. The teen lived in Bridgeton with his mother but also split time with his father, who lives in Atlantic City's Bungalow Park. Several of Keal's friends lived in the Carolina Village Apartments, his father said. The couple said they were glad an arrest was made so quickly. Cheatham said the hospital staff was amazing and the they were thankful and how kind everyone was. "He didn't deserve this," Cheatham said of her stepson. "I don't question God," McLaughlin said. "Dumb acts like this. It's people who make the mistakes." But, he vowed, his son's name "will live on. He will not be forgotten."