She was emptying her cat’s litter box when a man walked up and shot her. Was it a case of mistaken identity?

A D.C. man was charged Thursday in the shooting of a woman who he apparently thought was someone else, according to prosecutors.

Michael Owusu-Sakyi, 47, faces a charge of aggravated assault while armed in the April 5 shooting. According to charging documents, officers responded to a call for the shooting in the 1700 block of Fairlawn Avenue SE at 9:46 a.m. and spoke with the woman who’d been shot in her right forearm.

She told police she was emptying her cat’s litter box in a grassy area nearby her home when Owusu-Sakyi approached her from behind and shot her, according to charging documents. After the shooting, Owusu-Sakyi told the woman that he thought she was someone else and that she should call 911, according to the documents.

When she returned to her home, charging documents said she heard a knock at the door and her family member saw Owusu-Sakyi standing on her front porch. Police obtained footage from the home’s Ring camera and when it was shown to the woman who was wounded, she told police the person in the video was the man who shot her.

After being shot, the woman was then taken to the hospital for treatment.

At the scene of the shooting, police said they found a small pile of cat litter in the grassy area where the woman was shot. There was also a trail of blood close by that led back to the woman’s home, charging documents said.

Later in the day, the woman and family members encountered Owusu-Sakyi again and an argument broke out, according to the documents.

An officer patrolling nearby tried to intervene, when one of the people, a man, ran into a home in which Owusu-Sakyi was the listed resident. The others involved in the argument told police he was the one who shot the woman in the arm.

Using a police database, officers pulled a picture of Owusu-Sakyi, which the woman picked out of a group of photos, identifying him as the person who shot her, the court documents said.

Investigators said Owusu-Sakyi does not have a license to carry a firearm in D.C.

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.

Thomas Robertson

Thomas Robertson is an Associate Producer and Web Writer/Editor at WTOP. After graduating in 2019 from James Madison University, Thomas moved away from Virginia for the first time in his life to cover the local government beat for a small daily newspaper in Zanesville, Ohio.

Federal News Network Logo
Log in to your WTOP account for notifications and alerts customized for you.

Sign up