The 19-year-old man accused in the shooting death of a 10-year-old girl on Mother’s Day was arraigned in court on Tuesday, where more details about the shooting emerged — as well as how police say they connected him to the crime.
Koran Gregory, of Southeast D.C., appeared before a judge Tuesday after his arrest on charges of first-degree murder while armed in the death of Arianna Davis, who was struck by a stray bullet while riding in the back seat of her family’s car on Mother’s Day. He was denied bond and ordered to be held in jail.
Gregory was arrested on unrelated firearms offenses in D.C. on Monday and was not charged with Davis’ killing until he was in police custody, Assistant Chief of the Investigative Services Bureau Carlos Heraud said Monday during a news conference about the arrest.
Court documents showed that police connected Gregory to Davis’ shooting, in part, through a gray backpack that they said he was seen wearing in surveillance footage in and around the Congress Park neighborhood of D.C. on May 14 — the day of the shooting.
Police found a gray backpack inside a room identified as Gregory’s. He has denied that the backpack police found from his apartment on Savannah Street Southeast was the same one seen in surveillance footage on May 14.
Gregory was also identified through Instagram posts provided by an individual the police interviewed, including one where the gray backpack can also be seen carried by Gregory. One of these posts appeared to feature Gregory, under the nickname “Ran Ran,” in a rap music video with others, some of whom were holding firearms, court documents said. Gregory has denied having that nickname, court documents said.
Investigators also used a face recognition system called “Morpheus” to link a photo on Gregory’s Instagram account to him, police said. The results included Gregory, his address and date of birth.
When police interviewed Gregory, he asked for a photo showing him next to a vehicle on the day of the shooting. When shown the photos, court documents said that Gregory acknowledged that the person in the picture was him.
On Monday, when police executed the search warrant of Gregory’s Southeast home, court documents said police found three firearms on a bed under several pillows. Ballistics found one of the firearms, a privately made firearm with no serial number, was linked to a cartridge case found from the scene of the shooting, the stolen suspect vehicle and another drive-by shooting that followed on the 2900 block of Martin Luther King Avenue Southeast later on May 14.
‘Ari, don’t die’
Arianna Davis, 10, died three days after she was shot on Mother’s Day. She was riding in the right side of the rear passenger seat of her family’s white Jeep rental, spending the day together in observance of the holiday, court documents said.
They were in the 3800 block of Hayes Street in Northeast D.C. when the suspect vehicle, a black late-model Audi Q7 with no front tags, stopped in the roadway. Several people got out of the Audi and fired upon the people gathered in front of Hayes Street. Meanwhile, video shows the Jeep in which Davis was riding, backing up. Video also showed the Jeep behind the suspect vehicle, with no one behind it.
“A short time later, a barrage of gunfire can be heard that lasts several rounds. There is a pause before the sound of a second volley of gunfire, some of which sounds fully automatic,” court documents said.
Examination of the casings found at the scene linked them to other offenses in D.C., including at least three homicides, according to court documents.
The Audi was then seen fleeing the scene at a high speed and was seen entering Route 295 southbound. Emergency callers described hearing more than 100 shots.
A younger child in the car with Davis was heard saying, “Ari, don’t die,” which alerted a family member that Davis had been hurt.
The family tried to drive to the hospital but went to a firehouse along the way near 15th and C streets Southeast, court documents said.
The medical examiner said that Davis was shot once in the head, “causing catastrophic damage,” court documents said. Her death was ruled a homicide.
Later that night, just after 10:45 p.m., Prince George’s County firefighters found a vehicle in flames in Temple Hills, Maryland. The vehicle was a black 2017 Audi Q7. Court documents said that vehicle was stolen on April 24 at the Hyatt Place Hotel in Northeast D.C.
The prosecutor said on Tuesday that destroying the vehicle was a “consciousness of guilt, consciousness of the fact that it’s been used in a homicide.”
In arguing for bail, Gregory’s lawyer said that he had no criminal record before the shooting, adding that he has family in D.C., that he was a product of the District and its schools, and he had “always been a working man.”
Gregory, according to court documents, denied any involvement in Davis’ death, saying that he was with his mother for at least part of Mother’s Day.
The prosecutor said that since graduating from D.C. schools and becoming an adult, Gregory “graduated to the most serious offense that an adult can commit.”
