A single bullet casing fired from a rifle and found in the back seat of a burned-out vehicle provided D.C. police with crucial evidence that led to an arrest in the fatal shooting of a 6-year-old girl, authorities said in court documents made public Thursday.
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That casing matched other casings found strewn along a street where Nyiah Courtney was killed and five others, including her parents, were wounded on July 16 by at least eight shots fired from a vehicle as it passed through the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X avenues in Southeast Washington.
Authorities describe people — some headed into or out of shops, others standing on a sidewalk or sitting in lawn chairs — scattering amid a hail of bullets that night. In a catalogue of what was left behind, police listed bullet casings, copper-jacketed bullet fragments and a pair of child-size flip flops.
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Police also revealed for the first time that someone later returned fire at the vehicle, firing as many as 17 shots from a 9mm handgun near a park half a block from the intersection.
The break in the case came the day after the shooting when, police said, a burned 2006 Saturn Ion was found abandoned on a residential street along Eastern Avenue. Police said in the court documents that it had been loaned to the suspect, Marktwan Hargraves, 22, and never returned to its owner. The casing was among evidence found inside.
Police charge suspect in killing of 6-year-old girl
The court documents were made public in D.C. Superior Court ahead of an initial appearance for Hargraves, who is charged with second-degree murder while armed. A defense attorney had not been listed in court records on Thursday morning.
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The death of Nyiah, a bubbly, energetic girl who liked to mimic her grandmother and couldn’t wait to start the first grade, came amid rising concern about gun violence, which has spiked in the city over the past two years.
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Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) and Police Chief Robert J. Contee III spent nearly 90 minutes on Wednesday briefing reporters and the city on the arrest and advocating for more police and the full-time return of the judicial system, which had been paused during the coronavirus pandemic, to clear a backlog of criminal cases. They also discussed programs to address the root causes of crime.
Contee and federal authorities revealed additional details of what led to the shooting, saying Nyiah’s father is suspected of being a member of a group called the MLK Crew and may have been targeted. The father was among those shot, and he was arrested a day later under a federal indictment naming a dozen suspects who authorities allege are linked to drugs and violence.
Nyiah Courtney recalled as an energetic child who couldn’t wait to start first grade
The court documents released Thursday add to that narrative, noting a long-standing feud between members of the MLK Crew and those in the nearby subdivision of Congress Park. That dispute, the affidavit says, “has resulted in several shootings and homicides.”
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Police said that in the hours and days after Nyiah was killed, detectives fielded numerous tips alleging that the shooting was in retaliation for past slights, and possibly an earlier homicide. The affidavit says the casings found at the scene and in the vehicle match those from two other shootings, including a fatal shooting in Northeast Washington in 2019.
Authorities say they do not know of a precise motive for the shooting that killed Nyiah.
Thus far, it appears as though the best evidence came from the burned-out Saturn Ion. Police said they talked to its owner, who had a previous relationship with Hargraves and identified him as the person who had been given the vehicle in late June. The owner told police that attempts to get the Saturn returned were unsuccessful.
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Police said in the affidavit that the Saturn had been set on fire using an accelerant.
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Police said they found a temporary Maryland license plate, a lighter, a book of matches and a gas can. Later, police said they found the bullet casing on the back seat.
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