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Authorities have charged a 16-year-old boy as an adult in an October killing on the U Street corridor in Northwest, with police saying in court documents that the teen continued firing at an unarmed man after he was “already on the ground and clearly defenseless.”
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Ashton Inabinet, of Alexandria, Va., was charged with second-degree murder while armed in the killing of Diamonte Lewis, 24, police said Wednesday. He pleaded not guilty.
The lawyer listed for Inabinet in court records did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Inabinet was held without bond Wednesday and committed to a secure detention facility, court records show. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for Dec. 13.
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Inabinet’s arrest comes as top D.C. officials have declared violence among youths a crisis, in part because of the number of young people arrested for violence offenses. In the first nine months of this year, police recorded 458 arrests of youths for robbery, homicide or assault with a dangerous weapon — a 10 percent increase from the same period last year.
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Lewis was killed Oct. 21 in the 900 block of U Street NW about 3:40 a.m. In an affidavit filed in D.C. Superior Court, police said he had six gunshot wounds.
Police said in the affidavit, that Inabinet was one of two people who fired shots at Lewis.
“They collectively chose, with time to think about it, to attack and kill the decedent who was unarmed,” police said in the document.
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Inabinet was seen shortly before the killing with a group of seven other people, at least some of whom were engaged in some sort of altercation with Lewis before he was killed, police said. Witnesses interviewed by police had different accounts of what transpired before the shooting.
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One witness, who said they were with Inabinet that night, told police that Inabinet and Lewis had encountered each other near 14th and U streets NW earlier that evening and that “words were exchanged which led to a physical altercation.”
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The two met again later near Ninth and U streets, the witness said, where the fatal shooting occurred.
In a supplemental affidavit, police said Inabinet had decided to “introduce the firearm into a fistfight.”
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Also in the court filings, police said that a school resource officer at West Potomac High School in Alexandria helped identify Inabinet and that officials at the high school and the Fairfax County police “essentially tipped off” the teenager about the investigation a week before his arrest, which allowed him to hide evidence.
Fairfax County police defended its approach, saying in a statement that D.C. police homicide detectives had come to a high school, interacted with a school resource officer and said they would pursue criminal charges for a recent killing in the District.
The police department said officers then delivered a letter, which they said was signed by the Fairfax County Public Schools superintendent, “banning the student, a murder suspect, from school until we received further information.”
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“This is a preventive action we own and stand by,” the department said in a statement. “The Fairfax County Police Department has a duty and responsibility to protect our students.”
And in her own statement Wednesday, Fairfax County Schools Superintendent Michelle C. Reid said school safety “remains our top priority and we will always act swiftly to protect our students and staff. We continue to work collaboratively with Fairfax County Police, who are partners in this work.” She did not address the assertion by D.C. police that school officials and Fairfax police had “tipped off” Inabinet about the investigation.
Karina Elwood contributed to this report.
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