A 17-year-old boy has been arrested and charged with murder in the fatal shooting of a 16-year-old girl, who was struck by gunfire trying to break up a fight outside of DuVal High School in Lanham on Monday.
The teen, of Glenarden, Maryland, is being charged as an adult in the shooting of Jayda Medrano-Moore, 16, of Greenbelt, authorities announced at a news conference Friday afternoon.
He is charged with first- and second-degree murder, first- and second-degree assault and a firearms charge. The teen, who has not been publicly identified, is being held without bond.
The shooting happened Monday afternoon shortly after school let out.
Medrano-Moore was walking on Palamar Drive after leaving DuVal High School about 3:45 p.m. when a fight broke out between two groups of students who had been involved in what police called an “ongoing dispute.”
During the fight, the 17-year-old pulled out a gun and when Medrano-Moore attempted to intervene, the older teen shot her, police said.
Medrano-Moore was rushed to the hospital where she died.
“She was a bright student, a great athlete, with an even brighter future,” said Prince George’s County Police Chief Malik Aziz. “And now we know it was another juvenile armed with a gun who stole her future and shattered her family.”
Fight sparked by ‘petty beef’ before fatal shooting
The police chief said the fight between the students stemmed from what he called a “petty beef,” between a group of students from DuVal and another group who attended Charles Herbert Flowers High School in Springdale, Maryland.
The teen arrested in the shooting is a student at Flowers High School.
Medrano-Moore was not part of the groups that were fighting, the police chief said.
“She was there. The fight was happening … And that right there, a person with a gun at a fight, shot her and killed her.”
Her father Glendon Reid told 7 News that Medrano-Moore was shot trying to protect her brother.
The police chief credited tips from the community and good detective work for helping lead to the arrest, which came Thursday — three days after the shooting.
In the days after the shooting, the 17-year-old was “living his life as if this did not occur,” Aziz said. “At every opportunity, he could have stood up and said, ‘Hey, this is me.'”
Police have not recovered the gun used in the shooting, and Aziz said the 17-year-old does not have a past criminal record.
In the wake of the shooting, school officials installed new metal and weapons detectors at the entrance to the school.
‘Our kids deserve not to die’
During the news conference Friday, Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks remembered the fallen teen.
“Jayda was a star. I mean, in every sense of the word,” Alsobrooks said. “She was a star in her school … She was a star in our community. And on the day of this incident, she was a star yet again and gave her life there trying to defuse this particular incident.”
Alsobrooks said the county is seeing too many crimes involving young people even as the police are making more arrests and the county has invested in youth programs.
“This issue will not be resolved simply by the government … It must be resolved in the homes and in the communities of these children, from their parents to the aunties, uncles, godparents,” Alsobrooks said. “Everybody has a responsibility to protect our children — to protect their lives and to prevent them from taking the lives of other children.”
She added, later, “People deserve to live in places that are safe. And our kids deserve not to die.”
Aisha Braveboy, Prince George’s County State’s Attorney, said her office has charged juveniles as adults in serious cases before and will continue to do so.
“You are not outsmarting the police, you are not outmaneuvering prosecutors,” she said in a message directly to young people. “You will not scare your peers into silence. They will speak up and they have spoken up this case. And then you will be held accountable.”
