WASHINGTON — A D.C. man already convicted in a fatal 2015 shooting faces a new murder charge after a victim he allegedly shot earlier this year near Dupont Circle died of his injuries last month.
On Thursday, a federal grand jury returned a superseding indictment charging 56-year-old Rodney Baggott, of Southeast, with first degree murder while armed, possession of a firearm during a crime of violence and two counts of unlawful possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
The charges stem from a shooting on Jan. 30 near the intersection of Q Street and Connecticut Avenue NW, just next to the Dupont Circle Metro Station, that left an adult male victim suffering from life-threatening injuries. According to the indictment returned yesterday, that victim, 28-year-old Rasheek Abdullah, of Northeast, died of his injuries on April 29.
Baggott was previously charged in 2015 with second-degree murder while armed for the fatal shooting of 44-year-old Donald Franklin Bush. He pleaded guilty in October 2018 to one felony count of voluntary manslaughter while armed and was sentenced to eight years in prison. According to D.C. Superior Court records, as part of that plea agreement, prosecutors agreed to dismiss a second, unrelated case against Baggott for the 1995 murder of 23-year-old DeAngelo Barr.
Baggott was released from the Bureau of Prisons in August 2022. At the time of his arrest in April of this year, Baggott was in custody at the Montgomery County Detention Center on unrelated charges of unlawful possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of a loaded handgun in a vehicle. He’s scheduled to begin a jury trial on those charges in September.
In addition to the murder charge against Baggott, the superseding indictment also charges a new defendant, Kimberly Bowens, with unlawfully assisting Baggott in his efforts to avoid arrest. Bowens was indicted on one count of misprision of a felony and two counts of being an accessory after the fact, including one count of being an accessory after the fact to an assault with intent to kill while armed.
According to the indictment, following the shooting Bowens tried to “hinder and prevent Rodney Baggott’s apprehension, trial and punishment.” Prosecutors say Bowens did that by “taking steps to modify the appearance of the vehicle used in the felony and to obfuscate her presence during the felony.”
Under federal law, a person convicted of misprision of a felony faces up to three years in prison. Under both federal law and D.C. Code, a defendant convicted of being an accessory after the fact faces up to half of the maximum term of the crime they allegedly aided. In D.C., conviction of assault with intent to kill while armed carries a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison and a maximum sentence of up to 30 years in prison.
Baggott was next scheduled to appear in court for a status conference on July 23.