A man accused of gunning down a Kentucky teacher who was visiting D.C. for a seminar last summer has been indicted on first-degree murder charges.
Jaime Macedo, 22, fatally shot 25-year-old Maxwell Emerson on the campus of Catholic University in Northeast D.C. after following the teacher from a Metro station and attempting to rob him, prosecutors said.
Emerson, of Crestwood, Kentucky, was in D.C. to attend a seminar at the Library of Congress.
Macedo was arrested a week later and has been held at the D.C. Jail since then.
The indictment was filed in D.C. Superior Court on Wednesday.
In addition to first-degree felony murder charges, Macedo was indicted on several other counts, including attempting to commit a robbery while armed, possession of a firearm during a crime of violence and unlawful possession of a firearm, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office of D.C.
Emerson’s killing followed a strange early morning robbery attempt, on July 5, 2023, which was caught on surveillance cameras, prosecutors said. The encounter between the two men began when Emerson emerged from the Brookland-CUA Metro station at about 7:30 a.m. that morning and Macedo apparently asked for him money, according to court documents.
Cameras then captured Emerson walking with his hands raised in what court documents described as a “don’t shoot manner,” as Macedo followed him for the next 30 minutes, from the Metro station to a bench on the campus of the university.
Moments before he was shot, prosecutors said Emerson attempted to send a plea for help to a family member on Snapchat, alerting them that he was being robbed at gunpoint: “Help. Bring ribbed. At cub point.”
Emerson died of a gunshot wound to the abdomen.
Macedo was on probation in three different cases at the time of the shooting, including a violent crime and a gun possession case, according to court documents. When police searched a Northeast residence where Macedo was living at the time, they found a tampered GPS ankle monitor that had been “cut up,” according to documents.
Through his defense attorney, Macedo pleaded not guilty to the charges at an arraignment in D.C. Superior Court on Friday.
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