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Gun charges were dropped against fatal carjacking suspect amid investigation into DC Police unit

DC Police confirm at least three officers involved in the August arrest of Daeyon Ross have been placed on non-contact status.

WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors dismissed firearms charges last year against a man now accused in a fatal carjacking spree after at least one officer involved in the case was identified as the subject of an internal DC Police investigation into the 7th District’s Crime Suppression Unit.

Daeyon Ross, 22, is charged in D.C. Superior Court with carjacking, assaulting a police officer while armed and possession of a firearm during a crime of violence in connection with a deadly crime spree over the weekend that spanned from Capitol Heights, Maryland, to Northeast D.C. Ross faces multiple additional felony charges in Prince George’s County, including first and second degree murder, for allegedly fatally shooting 56-year-old Kurt Modeste, of La Plata, while attempting to steal his car in a McDonald’s drive-through lane.

Ross made his initial appearance in D.C. court on Monday and was denied bond. He was being held at the D.C. Jail’s Central Detention Facility while awaiting a potential extradition request from Maryland.

Credit: Prince George's County Police Department
Daeyon Ross, 22, is accused of fatally shooting 56-year-old Kurt Modeste, of La Plata, Maryland, during a carjacking spree on June 3, 2023.

Ross previously served five years in a juvenile rehabilitation facility after he was convicted of a 2017 armed robbery on the Metro. D.C. Superior Court records show he was arrested again last year on Aug. 11 on multiple charges for allegedly carrying a handgun despite his felony conviction. According to an affidavit, officers arrested Ross after he spotted police near the intersection of 15th Place SE and Congress Place SE and then took off running while grabbing his waist band. During the chase he allegedly threw a black Taurus G3 9mm handgun to the ground.

Federal prosecutors charged Ross with being a felon in possession of a firearm, carrying a pistol without a license, possession of an unregistered firearm, possession of unregistered ammunition, altering identification marks of a weapon and possession of a large capacity ammunition feeding device. However, prosecutors dismissed all of those charges a little more than a month later after disclosing to Ross’ attorney that one or more officers involved in his arrest were the subject of an ongoing investigation into the 7th District’s Crime Suppression Unit. Prosecutors did not provide Ross' attorney with the names of the officers under investigation.

“The government has learned that one or more officers involved in this case are the subject of an ongoing investigation,” prosecutors wrote in a Brady disclosure on Oct. 3, 2022, that was included in a filing by Ross’ lawyer Molly Bunke, a staff attorney for the D.C. Public Defender Service. “This investigation was publicly described at a press conference held by the Metropolitan Police Department on September 30, 2022.”

That day, former DC Police Chief Robert Contee announced seven officers had been removed from the 7th District’s Crime Suppression Unit amid an internal investigation. According to Contee, during an internal review of body camera footage the department discovered two officers taking an illegal gun from a suspect and then letting them go. Contee said further review of three months of footage uncovered five more officers doing the same thing and raised questions about the truthfulness of reports filed by members of the specialized unit.

Contee said five officers and two sergeants had been placed on non-contact status and the remaining members of the unit had been reassigned.

After the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s disclosure, Bunke filed a motion seeking additional information about the 7th District unit, the ongoing investigation and a list of officers she believed were involved in Ross’ arrest. A day after Bunke’s filing, the U.S. Attorney’s Office moved to dismiss all charges against Ross.

On Friday, a spokesman for DC Police confirmed at least three of the officers on Bunke’s list who were involved in Ross’ arrest – Officers Adam Kelly, Caleb Demeritt and Abdul Dieng – were currently on non-contact status. The department declined to say whether they were subjects of the 7th District investigation. None of the officers has been publicly accused of wrongdoing.

According to an affidavit signed by Demeritt, he and Kelly were members of the 7th District unit and were patrolling under the call sign "Crime Suppression Team 3" on the day of Ross’ arrest. The affidavit states Kelly and Demeritt were assisted in arresting Ross by “other members of the Crime Suppression Team.” Dieng was previously identified by the Washington Post as one of the seven Crime Suppression Unit officers placed on non-contact status last year.

An email seeking comment from Bunke, Ross’ former attorney, was not returned Friday. A spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves’ office also declined to comment, however in November the office said it was undergoing a “case-specific assessment of impacted pending cases” and expected to dismiss dozens of gun and drug possession cases.

Since the investigation was announced, the D.C. Police Union has defended officers and pointed the blame instead at prosecutors declining to bring charges. In a statement in November, union chairman Gregg Pemberton said he was confident all of the officers placed on non-contact status would be exonerated and called the dismissed cases an “affront to the responsible and positive work these officers have engaged in.”

Ross was next scheduled to appear in court on July 21 before D.C. Superior Court Judge Heidi Pasichow. 

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