A black sneaker left behind at the scene of an attempted carjacking last year led to the conviction of a 21-year-old woman in a Montgomery County Circuit Court.
Roniyah Thomas, of District Heights, Maryland, shot a man when he refused to hand over the keys to his Subaru in Chevy Chase, near the border between Maryland and D.C., on Feb. 4, 2025.
A jury found Thomas guilty on all counts: attempted armed carjacking, first-degree assault, armed robbery and use of a firearm in the commission of a violent crime, according to the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office.
The man drove from Virginia to Chevy Chase to visit a friend who lived nearby and parked his Subaru near South Park Avenue and The Hills Plaza around 7:45 p.m.
He was standing outside his car, next to the passenger door, when a suspect — later identified as Thomas — aimed a gun at him and said “give me your keys.”
The man told detectives he pushed the gun away out of instinct; Thomas shot him in the leg and ran away, according to charging documents.
Initially, the suspect was described as a masked young male wearing all black.
Along with a bullet casing and one live round, Montgomery County police found a size-7 left shoe next to the passenger side door.
Security footage shows a person heading toward the intersection where the shooting happened and then running away after a shot was fired, according to charging documents. The same individual has two shoes when walking up to the crime scene, and a single shoe after the gunfire.
Footage at the Friendship Heights Metro station shows the individual going through a turnstile and then removing a right shoe and sticking it in a backpack.
Detectives were able to link the SmarTrip card used to enter the Metro station to a 7-year-old D.C. student.
Thomas lives at the same address as the person listed as an emergency contact for that student. Police said she resembled the shooter, who was captured on Metro cameras wearing the same outfits on multiple trips.
Police said the man was bleeding heavily from his left thigh when they arrived. They applied a tourniquet and he was taken to the hospital.
Thomas is scheduled to be sentenced June 26 and faces a maximum sentence of 95 years in prison, according to the state’s attorney’s office.
Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here.
© 2026 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.
