UPDATE: Monday – 2/25/2013, 11:40 am ET
WASHINGTON – Prince George’s County police say Travon Bennett, 20, of Bryans Road, Md., has been arrested for the murder of Marckel Ross.
UPDATE: Wednesday – 2/20/2013, 3:44pm ET
WASHINGTON – Prince George’s Police say they have arrested five suspects in connection with the murder of 15-year-old Charles Michael Walker Jr., who was shot and killed Monday afternoon.
Police plan to announce the arrests Wednesday afternoon.
The suspects have been identified as Derryck Antonio Green, 20, of the 900 block of North Henry Street in Alexandria, Jermani Maurice Whitner, 18, of the 2900 block of Saint Clair Drive in Temple Hills, Glenn Cornell Leach, 23, of the 1000 block of Southern Avenue in Southeast Washington, Tayvon Delonte Williams, 21, of the 6400 block of Livingston Road in Oxon Hill, and Kevin J. Smith, 21, of the 2900 block of Saint Clair Drive in Temple Hills.
Police say tips called into Crime Solvers helped detectives in the case.
All five suspects are in custody and have been charged with first degree murder.
Police also announced the second victim in Tuesday night’s Forestville shooting has died. He is identified as 18-year-old Andre Walter Shuford.
EARLIER: Wednesday – 2/20/2013, 2:19pm ET
WASHINGTON – Prince George’s County police have identified the 18-year-old Suitland High School student fatally shot Tuesday as Aaron Burrell Kidd.
Kidd, of the 3600 block of Melrose Avenue in District Heights, was pronounced dead at a local hospital, after police found him and another 18-year-old shot in a parking lot in Forestville.
EARLIER: Wednesday – 2/20/2013, 1:32pm ET
WASHINGTON – An 18-year-old student shot and killed Tuesday evening is the second from Suitland High School in roughly 24 hours and the sixth student lost to gun violence in Prince George’s County in the last six months.
The freshman was found with another man, also 18, in Forestville, Md., at about 5:30 p.m. Both were shot and the other remains in grave condition. Their names have not been released.
In a statement, Brian K. Coleman, spokesperson for Prince George’s County Public Schools, said:
“We are horrified to learn that tragedy struck another one of our students within a 24-hour time-span. Our hearts are broken again and we extend our deepest sympathy and condolences to the family. We cannot go another day without addressing these unspeakable acts of violence against our students. We are asking for the community’s support as our students, teachers and employees cope with these incidents.”
Read more about Tuesday’s incident here.
A 15-year-old who attended Suitland High School was shot and killed Monday.
Police found Charles Michael Walker Jr. on the ground and with a gunshot wound in the 4100 block of 28th Avenue in Hillcrest Heights Monday afternoon. The teen — who lived in the 4200 block of 28th Avenue in Hillcrest Heights — was taken to a local hospital and later pronounced dead.
“It’s just crazy,” says one of the victim’s classmates at Suitland. “Why would you pull the trigger on someone who’s not messing with you?”
“That makes me frightened for my life.”
Police say the motive in Walker’s killing was robbery involving a pair of shoes the victim was carrying in a shopping bag. The shoes — sources say they were Timberland boots — were left at the scene of the shooting.
“I am really enraged that a young person in our community can’t walk the streets with a shopping bag without being shot in the back,” Prince George’s County State’s Attorney Angela Alsobrooks says.
Watch Prince George’s County Police Chief Mark Magaw give an update on the case Tuesday:
Walker was the fifth student who had attended a school in the county to be killed this school year. Tuesday night’s death makes six.
A WTOP review shows other county students killed are:
- Amber Stanley, 17, was shot and killed in her own bed. She attended Charles H. Flowers High School.
- Marckel Ross, 18, was shot and killed while on his way to school. He attended Central High School.
- Marcus Jones, 16, was shot and killed after a weekend house party. He attended Friendly High School.
- Eliezer Reyes, 14, was killed in a drive-by shooting. The Gazette reports he had attended Nicholas Orem Middle School, but had switched recently to Foundations School in Largo — an independent school for students with emotional and behavioral disabilities.
Police had made arrests in at least two of the cases — Jones’ and Reyes’ — and were seeking an additional suspect in each. Before the sixth shooting death occurred, ABC7 reported that police expect to make arrests in four of the cases by next week’s end.
Grief counselors were on hand at Suitland High School Tuesday for students, teachers and staff.
Police say detectives have received multiple tips in Walker’s case, and anyone with information on the murder can contact the Prince George’s County Police Department’s Homicide Unit at 301-772-4925.
Callers wishing to remain anonymous may call Crime Solvers at 1-866-411-TIPS (8477), text “PGPD plus your message” to CRIMES (274637) on your cellphone or go to the website and submit a tip online.
“We’re just looking for any tips, if there were any witnesses or anyone that saw anything suspicious to please notify us,” Cpl. Larry Johnson with Prince George’s County police tells WTOP.
“We’re very disturbed about what’s happened,” says Prince George’s County Executive Rushern Baker.
“My sympathy goes out to the families,” Baker says.
Baker, whose three children attended Suitland High School, says the county needs to take a comprehensive look at the problems young people are having.
“We need to do more. We can’t arrest our way out of these problems. We can’t prosecute our way out of them,” Baker says.
“These are our young people killing each other, looking each other in the face and shooting at each other, and we’ve got to do something about that,” he says.
Baker, who started the Transforming Neighborhoods Initiative last year, says a holistic approach is needed to preventing violence and helping children. That approach would include schools, police, prosecutors and other agencies focusing on individual neighborhoods.
“We need more intimate involvement in what’s going on in the homelife of these individuals,” Baker says.
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