Police have arrested a suspect in the shooting death of 11-year-old Karon Brown.
D.C. police on Saturday arrested 29-year-old Tony Antoine McClam of Southeast D.C. He was charged with second degree murder while armed.
Police thanked the community for their assistance in the arrest by providing multiple tips in the case.
“Guns do indeed kill people,” D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said at a press conference. “Guns in the hands of the wrong people are deadly and make our neighborhoods unsafe. We can not wait for another child to fall victim to senseless gun violence.”
Brown was killed Thursday night after he was shot in Southeast D.C.
Just before 7 p.m., D.C. police responded to reports of gunshots in the 2700 block of Naylor Road Southeast. Initially, police had said the location was the 2800 block of Alabama Avenue Southeast.
No victims were found on the scene, but police soon received notice from Prince George’s County Fire/EMS that an 11-year-old boy with gunshot wounds was being transported to a hospital.
Brown was driven to a fire station in Prince George’s County, Maryland, and then transferred to a children’s hospital. Brown later died.
An initial investigation revealed Brown was inside a car at the time of the shooting. The shooting broke out during a dispute between at least five people. As the dispute escalated, several shots were fired into the car where the Brown was seated, striking him.
Assistant Chief Robert Contee with D.C. police called the incident a “targeted shooting,” meaning shots were intentionally fired into the vehicle.
It is unclear who specifically was targeted inside the vehicle, or Brown’s relation to the person who drove him to the fire station.
Contee shared a description of the suspected shooter: a black man between 20 and 30 years old, of medium, stocky build, and a medium complexion. At the time of the shooting, the suspect was wearing black pants and no shirt.
The other suspects are said to be young men or boys, and may range in age from 10 or 11 years old to their early 30s.
On Friday, back in the neighborhood of the shooting, resident Sharon Wise told WTOP, “We keep trying to stop this same type of thing from happening.”
For Mildred King, what took place hit close to home. She said her grandson was murdered last year, and she wanted to see the violence come to an end.
“We need to find out what we can do to calm, to stop this killing, because it’s really getting serious — it’s so much that you can’t pump gas no more,” King said.
Also in the area was George Chapman, with local group Stop the Killing, which he said aims to bring the community together by bringing to an end what he called a lack of respect for others.
Police cadets were handing out flyers in the area Friday, with the hopes of getting tips in the case.
At the scene of last night’s shooting in southeast DC that left an 11-year-old dead, @DCPoliceDept cadets hand out flyers, with the hopes of getting tips in the case. @WTOP pic.twitter.com/RRXuXsqoKJ
— Mike Murillo (@MikeMurilloWTOP) July 19, 2019
Mayor Bowser urged residents Thursday to come forward with information about the shooting, “so we can take a killer off the streets.” She reiterated that the victim was a child, and that other children were in the area during the shooting.
“Our communities have to stand up and speak up, and make sure anyone who knows anything about this brazen homicide is brought to justice,” Bowser said.
On Friday evening, Bowser’s office announced an increase in reward money for information that leads to an arrest and conviction of a person or people responsible for the D.C. homicide.
D.C. police initially offered up to $25,000, and other agencies added to the reward: $15,000 from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and $10,000 from the FBI’s Washington Field Office.
Anyone who witnessed the shooting or suspicious activity in the area just before 7 p.m. is asked to call (202) 727-9099, or send an anonymous text to 50411.
Below is a map of where the shooting took place:
WTOP’s Mike Murillo contributed to this report.
