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Arianna Davis, the 10-year-old girl whose shooting has come to symbolize the worsening toll of lethal firearms violence on D.C. streets, was caught in the crossfire of a gunfight involving multiple culprits and four weapons that previously had been used in at least three homicides and numerous other crimes, police said in an affidavit made public Tuesday.
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Arianna’s parents, traveling in a rented Jeep Renegade with their three children on the night of May 14, were headed home from a Mother’s Day event when a fusillade of gunfire erupted in the 3200 block of Hayes Street NE, according to the affidavit, filed in D.C. Superior Court to obtain an arrest warrant for a 19-year-old suspect in the case. The affidavit says the couple did not know Arianna had been wounded until one of her siblings called out from the back seat.
“Ari, don’t die.”
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The girl, struck in the head by a stray bullet, was pronounced dead in a hospital three days later.
The new details emerged after police on Monday announced the first arrest in the killing. Koran Gregory of Northeast Washington, who is charged with first-degree murder, made his initial appearance Tuesday in Superior Court and was ordered held without bond. His attorney, Anthony Matthews, in seeking to have the case dismissed, argued that there was no direct evidence tying Gregory to the crime. But a prosecutor said there is “ample evidence — both circumstantial evidence as well as direct evidence.”
Gregory, who has a history of juvenile arrests on firearms-related charges, also was charged with illegal possession of a large-capacity ammunition magazine. He will not enter pleas until a future hearing.
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The fatal shooting came just five months after Gregory was released from probation in a juvenile gun case.
Arianna is the youngest of 192 people, including 14 other juveniles, who have been slain so far this year in Washington — a pace of homicides not seen in the District for at least two decades. “Persons were out celebrating Mother’s Day, out celebrating a holiday for families, when they became vulnerable to indiscriminate gunfire,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Ariel Dean said in court.
Shell casings collected at the scene on Hayes Street have been linked by crime-lab tests to four firearms — a .40-caliber, two 9mms and a .223-caliber — that were used in nearly 30 other gun-related crimes the D.C. area, including three other killings over the last year, the affidavit says.
The shooting occurred around 9:15 p.m. in the Mayfair neighborhood of Northeast Washington. One of Arianna’s parents told police that a car in front of them stopped, and two or three people got out and started shooting. Then a round of gunfire came from another direction, with bullets striking the Jeep, the parent said, according to the affidavit.
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As police put it in the affidavit, based on surveillance video: “A barrage of gunfire can be heard that lasts several seconds. There is a pause before a second volley of gunfire, some of which sounds fully automatic.”
In the affidavit, police did not cite a motive for the gunfight but said Gregory was “associated with the Congress Park neighborhood” and that investigators were aware of multiple “ongoing feuds” between people in that area and perceived rivals in other parts of the District.
Homicide detectives linked Gregory to one of the vehicles involved in the shooting, the affidavit says. That car, an Audi Q7 that police found ablaze in Prince George’s County, hours after Arianna’s slaying, was carjacked in April outside of a hotel in Northeast Washington, the affidavit says.
Police also said they found a gray backpack and white shoes in Gregory’s home that matched items worn and carried by one of the shooters. Authorities also found a firearm under a pillow in Gregory’s home, the affidavit says. It said the firearm was linked to a casing found where Arianna was killed.
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Matthews, Gregory’s attorney, argued that the backpack and the gun cited in the affidavit were found in an apartment where multiple people lived. Matthews also argued that the shooters “obviously had military training” which he said Gregory does not.
“No one has identified Mr. Gregory as to having participated in this homicide,” Matthews said in court.
Magistrate Judge Lloyd Nolan Jr. ordered Gregory jailed until his next hearing, on Sept. 28. About 20 of Gregory’s family members sat in the back of the courtroom. As deputy marshals escorted Gregory out, he yelled, “Love y’all!”
Gregory had multiple gun charges as a juvenile and was released from a period of probation in December — two weeks earlier than originally scheduled, according to documents reviewed by The Washington Post.
According to the documents, on Dec. 19, 2021, when Gregory was 17, he was charged as a juvenile with five offenses, including possession of a prohibited weapon, carrying a pistol without a license and resisting arrest.
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Two months later, he pleaded guilty to possession of an unregistered firearm and possession of ammunition without registration. In exchange for those pleas, prosecutors in the D.C. attorney general’s office agreed not to charge Gregory with any additional crimes related to this arrest, including a carjacking offense, and agreed not to seek secure detention.
The probation was scheduled to terminate on Dec. 22, 2022. But on Dec. 6, Gregory’s attorney and mother petitioned D.C. Superior Court Judge Robert Salerno, requesting to have the probation terminated early because Gregory’s mother was facing “significant” financial hardship in taking time off her job to transport her son to his probation appointments.
Gregory’s probation officer supported the early termination, writing that Gregory “has been doing excellent” and has made “98 percent” of his scheduled meetings. On Dec. 8, 2022, a judge granted Gregory’s early termination.
That was not Gregory’s first gun possession case. In 2018, when he was 14, he was arrested for armed robbery, according to the documents. D.C. prosecutors dismissed that case about a year later. No information was provided as to the reason for the dismissal.
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