A third D.C. man has been arrested and charged with murder in connection to the fatal shooting of 10-year-old Arianna Davis that happened on Mother’s Day last year.
D.C. police said 25-year-old Charles Owens was charged Wednesday with first-degree murder while armed. Owens was already in custody at the D.C. jail.
‘Ari, don’t die’
The shooting happened in May of last year around 9 p.m. in the 3700 block of Hayes Street in Northeast D.C. Davis was riding in the right side of the rear passenger seat of her family’s white Jeep rental when the suspect vehicle, a black late-model Audi Q7 with no front tags, stopped in the roadway in front of them.
Several people got out of the Audi and fired upon the people gathered in front of Hayes Street, police said.
After several barrages of gunfire, 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 instead went to a firehouse along the way near 15th and C streets Southeast, court documents said. Davis was then rushed to the hospital and died three days later.
Third suspect charged in another violent case
Owens is the third D.C. man charged with murder in Davis’ killing, along with 19-year-olds Dallas McKinney and Koran Gregory, both of Southeast.
According to D.C. police, Owens was already in custody at the D.C. jail when he was charged in Davis’ killing. Owens was arrested in June of 2023 — the month after Davis was fatally shot — on attempted armed carjacking and assault charges.
The Prince George’s County Police Department said in a June news release that two Kias pulled up next to a detective in an unmarked police vehicle, with one suspect getting out, approaching the officer and pointing a gun at him. The officer shot at the suspect, and the suspect ran back into one of the two Kias, which both sped off.
After a pursuit that ended in D.C., Owens and a 16-year-old boy were arrested.
How police linked Owens to Mother’s Day shooting
According to court documents, a paid confidential informant identified Owens to police as one of the suspects seen in surveillance footage before Davis’ killing. That person also provided police with an Instagram account for Owens.
Police conducted a search warrant for the account, which turned up several videos showing Owens at an address where other suspects were seen in the minutes before and after Davis’ killing, according to court documents.
A search warrant for an Instagram account linked to Gregory also turned up a message thread with the account linked to Owens.
D.C. police told WTOP that Owens was ordered to be transferred from a corrections facility in Maryland to D.C.
WTOP’s Abigail Constantino contributed to this report.
Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here.
© 2024 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.
