This article is from the source 'washpo' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/dc-police-arrest-suspect-in-fatal-shooting-of-15-year-old-at-deanwood-metro/2016/03/29/38181710-f510-11e5-8b23-538270a1ca31_story.html

The article has changed 7 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 5 Version 6
D.C. police arrest suspect in fatal shooting of 15-year-old at Deanwood Metro D.C. police arrest suspect in fatal shooting of 15-year-old at Deanwood Metro
(about 7 hours later)
D.C. police on Tuesday said they arrested a 17-year-old suspect in Saturday afternoon’s fatal shooting of a 15-year-old who was gunned down on the platform of the Deanwood Metro station in front of his mother and two younger sisters. The 15-year-old was sitting on a bench with his mother and younger sisters inside a glass shelter, waiting for a train at the Deanwood Metro station in Northeast. Davonte Washington, his head bowed, was absorbed in his cellphone.
Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier announced the arrest at a news conference Tuesday morning. The chief said the teenager is expected to appear in court later today and will be charged with second-degree murder while armed. An older teenager clutching a white bag with carryout food walked by on the platform with friends. One of Davonte’s sisters looked at the young man after he had passed. He paused and tapped on the glass to draw Davonte’s attention.
Bill Miller, the spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, identified the suspect as Maurice Bellamy and said he is being charged as an adult. Bellamy has addresses in the District and in suburban Maryland. Davonte stepped out.
The slain youth, Davonte Washington, was a freshman at Largo High School in Prince George’s County and was in the District visiting his mother and sisters. He was on his way to get a haircut for Easter when he was shot at the station in Northeast Washington about 4 p.m. They exchanged words. “What the f--- you keep looking at me for? You know me from somewhere?” the older teen uttered, police said. A split second later, without provocation or for no more reason than what the gunman may have taken as a disrespectful glance, “the suspect pulled a silver or chrome handgun and shot” Davonte, police said.
On Tuesday, Lanier called the killing “senseless in my opinion.” She also said “there was no reason for it. Absolutely no reason.” Lanier said investigators have no information to believe the suspect knew the victim. The chief would not say what led to an arrest but credited surveillance cameras. “We have very good video that helped us significantly,” Lanier said. The police arrest affidavit says the gunman handed his food to a friend, tucked his gun in his pants and fled the station, with Davonte’s mother racing after him shouting: “Stop him! He just shot my son!”
Washington’s grandfather, Victor Leonard said they are “very excited that police have someone in custody.” Leonard said he talked with Lanier on Tuesday that he learned “this was a completely senseless crime.” He said family members planned to attend the suspect’s court hearing. Police outlined a chilling scenario Tuesday in a court document as well as in a courtroom, charging Maurice Bellamy, 17, of Southeast Washington as an adult with second-degree murder while armed in Saturday afternoon’s slaying. Davonte was gunned down in front of his mother and sisters at 4 p.m. as he was headed to get a haircut for Easter, his family said.
A police arrest affidavit filed in D.C. Superior Court says Washington arrived at the Metro station with his mother and sisters and were at fare card machine when the suspect and his friends entered the Deanwood station. They “walked right past the decedent and there is no interaction between the suspect’s group and the decedent and his family,” the affidavit states. Police said they have no evidence that the suspect and Davonte knew each other.
Washington and his family went up to the platform and sat in a glass enclosed booth. Police said in the affidavit that the suspect and his friend walked past the booth. The suspect glanced at he people inside, police said, but Washington was preoccupied by his cell phone. A witness told police that Bellamy tapped on the glass and Washington said, “What you talking about cuz?” [Teen fatally shot on Metro platform in front of mother, sisters]
Washington then walked out of the enclosed area. Bellamy said, “What’s up?” a witness told police, and Washington replied with the same, “What’s up?” Another witness told police that the suspect said to Washington, “What the f--- you keep looking at me for, you know me from somewhere?” The lack of motive confounded D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier, long accustomed to explaining deadly violence stemming from petty disputes yet struggling to explain the District’s 26th killing of 2016.
“The suspect pulled a silver or chrome handgun and shot the decedent,” police said in the affidavit. “When it comes to violence, nothing really is more senseless than this case, in my opinion,” the chief said. “The loss of a 15-year-old boy under any circumstances is a tragedy. But in this case, it’s even more so, as it appears that there was just no reason for it. Absolutely no reason for it.”
Police said a friend of the suspect’s told him to “chill.” Bellamy handed a friend a bag with carryout food, put his gun in his pocket or in his pants, and ran out of the station. Washington’s mother ran after him, shouting, “Stop him, he just shot my son.” Bellamy made his initial appearance in D.C. Superior Court on Tuesday as about 40 of Davonte’s grieving relatives watched from four rows in the courtroom, trying to comprehend the loss of the high school freshman who played Pee Wee football, aspired to join the military and was shot twice in the chest.
A Metro Transit officer identified Bellamy as the suspect after watching surveillance video, according to the document. Police said Bellamy lived in a D.C. group home in Northwest Washington, and went by Mikey B. and “Moe.” Police said he has two FaceBook pages, one that shows him in pictures labeled, “SHOOTA MOE, AKA MOE CITY.” In another, it describes him as “KENTLANDMO.” When marshals escorted Bellamy into the courtroom amid heightened security, Davonte’s mother yelled, “That’s the one who killed my baby!” and began sobbing as family members tried to console her. Bellamy was wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and blue jeans. His ankles and wrists were in shackles.
That account from police confirms what relatives had said earlier — that Washington had exchanged words with the suspected shooter but that the two had no prior history and did not know each other. Washington’s grandfather, Leonard said the suspect’s name is not familiar to the victim’s family. Victor Leonard, Davonte’s grandfather, said the family was struck by how young Bellamy looked. “He’s just a kid himself,” Leonard said.
The Largo High School Parent Teacher Student Association said a vigil for Washington is planned for Wednesday at the Deanwood Metro Station. Assistant U.S. Attorney Glenn Kirschner argued that Bellamy should remain in jail until trial. The shooting, Kirschner told the judge, “gave new meaning to the term ‘senseless murder.’ . . . This was about a 15-year-old boy who had the temerity to look at Mr. Bellamy.”
[Teenager fatally shot at Deanwood Metro station] Kirschner said security video “clearly caught” Bellamy at the time of the shooting. A Metro Transit Police officer identified Bellamy from a mug shot matched to the surveillance video. Two witnesses with Bellamy also identified him, Kirschner said.
The shooting followed other violent acts on Metro and raised concern about safety. Metro Transit Police — about 470 officers — have in recent weeks boosted its presence on trains. Metro officials said the shooting was not indicative of violence on the public transit system. According to documents obtained by The Washington Post, Bellamy was arrested in 2014, when he was 16, for simple assault and for threatening an employee of Ballou High School, where he was a freshman.
Dan Stessel, the chief spokesman for Metro, said on Monday that the “crime rate on Metro is lower than in many of the communities we serve.” He added, “The crime that was committed at Deanwood was horrific and tragic for the community. There is nothing specific to Metro about it. It could have occurred across the street at the recreation center. It could have occurred on the sidewalk.” Bellamy’s attorney in the Metro shooting, Madeline Harvey with the District’s Public Defender Service, argued that the witnesses may have been biased and could have been threatened by police to identify Bellamy or face arrest themselves. “We don’t know what the police said to them,” she said. Bellamy’s relatives left the courtroom without speaking publicly.
Acting D.C. Police Capt. Anthony Haythe, who heads the homicide unit, said on Monday that he hoped “at some point real soon we’ll be able to bring a closure” to the case. Magistrate Judge Renee Raymond found Bellamy to be a danger and ordered him held at the D.C. jail until his next hearing, scheduled for April 22. Court documents say that Bellamy lived in a group home in Northwest Washington and grew up in the Kentland community in Prince George’s County. Police said they traced him to a Facebook page with pictures of him labeled, “SHOOTA MOE, AKA MOE CITY.”
Speaking to reporters before the arrest had been made on Tuesday, Haythe said detectives had not determined the substance of the exchange between Washington and the gunman. “That is still under investigation,” he said. According to the documents obtained by The Post, Bellamy was arrested in May 2014 after officials said he threatened a Ballou staffer who told him to leave a hallway. The staffer ordered Bellamy again to leave the hallway, the documents state, and Bellamy allegedly swung his fist and had to be restrained. He reportedly threatened to return to the school and “smoke all you . . . . ”
Bellamy pleaded guilty to misdemeanor threats, was placed on three months’ probation and ordered to undergo anger management classes and random drug testing for marijuana. He told a therapist that he had begun using marijuana when he was 14.
The documents show that he continued to miss school and the drug tests and failed to meet with his counselor. A probation officer’s recommendation to put him in a youth detention center was rejected by a judge, and he was put on probation again.
Davonte was reared in Maryland to give him a chance to attend better schools, a decision that meant living with his stepfather and apart from his mother and sisters in the District. He played for the Pepper Mill Boys and Girls in 2010, where his coach, Darnel Dorsey, described him as a “great athlete,” adding that he “was liked by everybody and wasn’t a troubled kid.”
Leonard said his grandson joined the Navy ROTC when he entered Largo High School and was leaning toward a career in the military.
“He was very humble,” Leonard said. “He understood if his parents couldn’t afford something and couldn’t keep him in the latest style. He wasn’t a kid who had to have the latest and greatest. He accepted what was given to him by his parents.”
The grandfather said he talked to Davonte on the phone the night before the fatal shooting. He was excited to spend the weekend with his mother and sisters, see cousins and visit an aunt. Just before hanging up, he told Leonard, “I need to get a haircut for Easter.”
They ended the conversation with the same words they say that everyone in the family uses to greet each other and say goodbye: “I love you always.”
Lynh Bui, Dana Hedgpeth, Jennifer Jenkins and Hamil R. Harris contributed to this report.Lynh Bui, Dana Hedgpeth, Jennifer Jenkins and Hamil R. Harris contributed to this report.