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Prince George’s County police have arrested a 17-year-old boy in the killing of a DuVal High School student who authorities say was fatally shot as she tried to intervene in a fight just feet away from the school grounds.
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The 17-year-old, a student at Charles Herbert Flowers High School who lives in Glenarden, was arrested Thursday evening and charged as an adult, authorities said. He faces first- and second-degree murder, assault and firearms charges in the fatal shooting of Jayda Medrano Moore, a 16-year-old basketball player who was leaving school Monday afternoon when the incident occurred.
Police said the 17-year-old is being held without bond at the county jail and did not release his identity.
“She was a bright student, a great athlete, with even a brighter future,” Prince George’s County Police Chief Malik Aziz said. “And now we know it was another juvenile, armed with a gun, who stole her future and shattered her family.”
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At the news conference Friday afternoon, county police and officials decried youth violence and demanded accountability, pointing to the slaying as evidence that more needs to be done. A new report from the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services released this week shows that carjackings and handgun violations by young people have skyrocketed since 2020, but overall youth violence has been declining for more than a decade.
Prince George’s County Executive Angela D. Alsobrooks (D) said losing “one child — and in this case, Jayda Medrano Moore” — shows that juvenile violence is “a very, very serious problem for us.” She said the county has offered youth enrichment programs and more mental health resources as well as deployed violence interrupters, but added that the problem would “not be resolved simply by the government.”
“Everybody else can crunch the data and do whatever it is they do there, but I can tell you what the facts are … our youth are involved in escalating violence,” Alsobrooks said.
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Police said Moore was walking on Palamar Drive in the Lanham area, just feet away from DuVal High, when a fight between two groups that had an ongoing dispute broke out. During that confrontation, police said, she was shot when she tried to intervene and died a short time later at a hospital.
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According to charging documents, a witness said they were walking from DuVal High with Moore and a group of friends when a person wearing a black ski mask and dark clothing “followed them, while talking on the phone” from Good Luck Road to Palamar Drive.
Then a sedan pulled up and five more people got out and a “fight ensued between the two groups,” according to the documents.
One person took out a semiautomatic handgun, and Moore “attempted to take the gun away,” according to the charging documents. During a struggle, the person pistol-whipped Moore before shooting her in the head. The group then fled. Another witness told police that “he did not mean to shoot her.”
“These are serious crimes that carry life sentences,” Prince George’s County State’s Attorney Aisha Braveboy (D) said, adding: “We have in many cases held young people accountable for adult crimes in adult court.”
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Aziz said the ongoing dispute was “some type of petty beef” among youth. Moore was not involved in that dispute, Aziz said.
According to Glendon Reid, 41, Moore’s father, the 16-year-old was trying to protect her younger brother, whose friend group was involved in the dispute. The fatal bullet ended his “loving and kind” daughter’s dreams of playing professional basketball in the Women’s National Basketball Association, Reid said.
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“She was innocent. She didn’t deserve this,” Reid said.
Alsobrooks said Moore was “a star in every sense of the word.”
“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.
Reid, who was also a high school basketball player, said he remembers taking Moore to basketball courts when she was younger and watching her skills develop.
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“When she was at DuVal, she was a freshman at one time, and they had her play in the varsity,” Reid said. “When you got a kid that has that type of talent as a freshman and playing with the bigger kids, coming into high school, that shows you that she had a great potential.”
On Friday morning, Reid, and Moore’s uncle, Johnny Davis, 54, headed to a funeral home to plan the teen’s final arrangements. Davis said Moore was “quiet and well-tempered.”
“She had the ability to focus in on her work and studies and not get into the whole social network thing, which makes this even more shocking,” Davis said. “She wasn’t doing anything to get herself in any trouble, even in the slightest fashion.”
Family members said they were happy to see an arrest made in the case — but they were trying to keep their minds off the suspect. A church service honoring Moore is scheduled for Wednesday.
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“We’re not going to try to focus on him,” Davis said of the suspect. “We want to hope to find something good that can come out of this by sending a message focusing around Jesus, who we believe is the real cure for these problems.”
Police credited community tips with helping them solve the case, including one about the sedan that pulled up, according to charging documents. The accused teen does not have a criminal record in Prince George’s County, according to Aziz. Police have not recovered a weapon, the chief said.
Weapons detectors were installed this week at DuVal High following the fatal shooting, Prince George’s County Public Schools Superintendent Millard House II said. It’s unclear whether the gun used in Moore’s shooting was brought into either high school, House said.
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