A D.C. man has been charged with murder, aggravated cruelty to animals and a string of other felonies after a carjacking spree Sunday afternoon that stretched from Prince George’s County, Maryland, into Northeast D.C. and left one man and two dogs dead.
Police said 22-year-old Daeyon Ross carjacked or attempted to carjack multiple drivers — including two who were waiting in line at a McDonald’s in Capitol Heights — and fatally shot Kurt Modeste, 56, of La Plata, during the outburst of violence.
“I’ve been doing this job for a very long time, and I can say that it’s very rare to come across an individual who has such a disregard for life,” said Zachary O’Lare, a Prince George’s County police official, during a news conference Sunday afternoon, after Ross was arrested in D.C.
Authorities in Prince George’s County said the series of incidents began unfolding about 12:10 p.m. Sunday, when Ross carjacked a Honda CRV in the area of Addison Road South and Rolling Ridge Drive in Capitol Heights.
Ross crashed a short distance away at Central Avenue and Ritchie Road and took off running on foot, police said.
At that point, Ross ended up in the McDonald’s parking lot, where he encountered Modeste in an Acura ILX in the drive-thru lane. Police said Ross attempted to carjack Modeste and then shot him multiple times. Modeste managed to drive a short distance after being shot but died a short time later.
Modeste was an off-duty Metrobus driver who worked for the Metro system for 24 years, the transit agency confirmed to WTOP. Reached by phone, Modeste’s wife, Pamela Modeste, said he was a father of five who was heading home from church at the time.
Ross then carjacked a Toyota Scion that was also in the drive-thru lane, police said, and once inside, shot and killed two dogs that were inside. A third dog that was also inside the vehicle was alive, police said.
Police pursuit into the District
Police said Ross then fled in the Scion heading westbound on Central Avenue toward the District, at which point multiple police agencies, including Prince George’s County police, pursued him into D.C.
At the intersection of 52nd Street and Sheriff Road in Northeast, police said Ross exited the stolen Scion and carjacked a fourth vehicle, a GMC Terrain.
There were three people inside who had just returned from church when Ross ran up to the passenger said with a gun and said, “B—-, get out of the car,” according to court documents filed in D.C. Superior Court.
After getting behind the wheel, police said Ross crashed a short time later. As officers approached, an officer with the Capitol Heights Police Department “engaged with Ross and was involved in an officer-involved shooting,” police said.
Neither the officer nor Ross was struck in the gunfire. Ross was then arrested.
Police found a Glock 19 Gen 5 with an extended magazine holding 31 rounds of ammunition and a laser light, according to D.C. court documents.
In addition to the charges out of Prince George’s County, Ross faces a string of charges in D.C. related to the carjacking of the GMC Terrain. At his first appearance in D.C. Superior Court on Monday afternoon, Ross pleaded not guilty to the D.C. charges and was ordered held without bond. He is set for a preliminary hearing on Thursday.
During the proceedings, Ross also declined to waive an extradition hearing, which would have potentially seen him transferred to Prince George’s County to face his charges there sooner. Instead, a formal extradition hearing will take place on Aug. 2.
Suspect was wanted for probation violation at time of carjacking spree
At the time of the carjacking spree, Ross was on probation stemming from a series of armed robberies in 2017, according to court records.
In 2018, Ross, then a teenager, was sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to sticking up three people exiting a Metrobus at gunpoint and robbing two people at knife point on a Green Line train in June 2017.
As of Sunday, Ross was still on probation for those offenses and was being sought on a bench warrant for violating his probation, according to D.C. Superior Court records.
After being released from prison on the Metro robberies, information from D.C. police indicates Ross was twice arrested on gun charges in D.C. — but he did not wind up back behind bars for long.
In August 2022, Ross was arrested in Northeast D.C., after police say he ran from officers and threw a gun out on the sidewalk. He was held at the D.C. Jail for about two months but was later released after prosecutors moved to dismiss the case following an internal investigation into several members of a D.C. police unit accused of misconduct.
In February, Ross was arrested again and charged with possessing a firearm and other offenses. However, that case does not appear in D.C. Superior Court records, indicating prosecutors did not move forward with the charges.
WTOP’s Mike Murillo and Matt Kaufax contributed to this report.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct an error regarding the total number of vehicles that were carjacked. Police said Ross carjacked three vehicles and attempted to carjack a fourth.
