A D.C. man maintained his innocence on Friday, insisting to a judge that he did not shoot and kill an 11-year-old boy in July, a death for which the man was charged with murder earlier this week.
In court Friday morning, 29-year-old Tony McClam told Judge Milton Lee that he was not guilty of the seven charges he faces — after rejecting a plea deal weeks earlier — in the murder of Karon Brown.
The 11-year-old was shot and killed as he hid in the back seat of a neighbor’s car on July 18, according to a timeline of the crime laid out in charging documents.
McClam was caught on nearby surveillance video in the parking lot of the McDonald’s on Naylor Road in Southeast D.C., confronting Brown and two other children about bullying that his girlfriend’s son had been experiencing, the documents said.
Brown ran off, asking a man nearby for a ride home; McClam later fired shots into that car, the documents said. Two other people were also in the car at the time, and McClam also faces charges for threatening their lives.
McClam was initially charged with second-degree murder, but a grand jury increased the charges to first-degree premeditated murder with aggravating circumstances, given the age of the victim.
The grand jury also handed up charges of assault with intent to kill while armed, possession of a firearm and carrying a pistol without a license.
