Interim Metropolitan Police Chief Jeffery Carroll said two men were arrested and charged in a retaliatory shooting that killed a 14-year-old boy and a 12-year-old boy this spring.
Antonio Terry, 18, and Markell Woodings, 20, face murder charges in the “targeted” slaying, Chief Carroll said. The two victims, who weren’t directly targeted in the shooting, lived in a nearby apartment complex.
“A tragic, tragic incident. These boys did nothing besides go to the food truck, and that’s why it’s so important for us to make sure that we work to get illegal firearms off the street,” Chief Carroll said at a press conference.
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Metropolitan Police officers arrested Mr. Terry on Sunday evening along H Street SE. The Capital Area Regional Fugitive Task Force arrested Mr. Woodings on Monday.
The two suspects are accused of killing 14-year-old Tyale Coates and 12-year-old Mhilo Young in a broad daylight shooting on April 14.
Court documents said the suspects pulled up in a stolen car and unleashed a hail of bullets toward the victims outside a mini-mart in the 700 block of Kenilworth Avenue NE.
The Office of the D.C. Medical Examiner said in an autopsy that Tyale was shot 12 times and Mhilo 18 times.
Court documents said the alleged gunmen sought out the boys because of an ongoing dispute between the Mayfair Mansions Apartment Complex and the Paradise at Parkside Apartment Complex, located less than a half-mile apart.
The documents said the feud stemmed from the killings of Le’Onte Tate and Dereon Womack, who were both shot three days before the two boys were gunned down while ordering smoothies by the mini-mart.
No arrests have been made in connection with the slayings of Tate and Womack, both 18, but a witness told police that he messaged an alleged accomplice to the suspects on Instagram and taunted the accomplice about their deaths.
The documents said the assailants took aim at Tyale and Mhilo the next day.
The witness, who lived in the Paradise apartments, said he received a call shortly afterward from one of the suspects in which they said, “You know who that was meant for.”
“It does appear that these two young people were targeted, not specifically for who they are, per se, but from what neighborhood they were from,” Chief Carroll said at the press conference.
The documents said Mr. Terry had four “law enforcement encounters” with police in Kenilworth over the past three years.
Court records show Mr. Woodings was arrested on a carjacking charge last year after allegedly flashing a gun at a victim who let the suspect use his moped. The case was set to go to trial early this year, but prosecutors dropped the charges.
Mr. Woodings was arrested on assault charges in June, but prosecutors dropped that case.
Mr. Terry will have his next court hearing Nov. 9.
Police said they are still searching for another suspect linked to the killings.
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