WASHINGTON — Police are still piecing together a deadly rampage that spanned from D.C. into Prince George's County from Monday night into Tuesday morning. In one incident, a former DC Board of Elections representative was shot. He is now in the hospital with critical injuries. In another, a man was shot and killed in a carjacking.
Police have identified the man killed as 35-year-old Alberto Vasquez Jr. Friends and family called him AJ. His family told WUSA9 they don't know what to do next.
"They say life goes on, or you've got to be strong. I don't even know really what strong is at this point," said Vasquez's father, Jacob Walker. "I don't want to be strong for this."
Police say Vasquez was shot and killed Monday night in a carjacking near 3rd and N Streets Northeast. His parents say he lived nearby. Witnesses sat they could hear him pleading with the shooter before hearing two shots.
Surveillance video from nearby appears to show the shooter, who has not been identified by police, taking off in Vasquez's car to continue what police say was a violent rampage that crossed into Maryland, where he was eventually shot and killed by New Carrollton Police in the early hours of Tuesday morning in West Lanham Hills.
"I feel robbed from even having a conversation with him, to explain to him who my son was, that he didn't have to kill him," Jacob Walker said of the man's death.
Vasquez's family carries both the pain of their son's death and the questions surrounding it.
"AJ was just a very charismatic, outgoing young man," his mother, Antoinette Walker, told WUSA9. "Not someone that anybody would want to take his life."
His parents say Vasquez just celebrated his 35th birthday and leaves behind two young daughter, ages 8 and 10.
"They grow up now without a father for the rest of their life? For what? Over a car?" Jacob Walker said.
His father said his son's death is not the end of his story.
"I don't care if it's some kind of nonprofit. Something has to be done in his honor, in his name," Jacob Walker said. "I want to do some good things for him and his name. I don't know what that is yet, but this can't just be it."
Those in the neighborhood told us they were angry and heartbroken by Vazquez's death, even though they didn't know him personally. Many we spoke to said they were concerned by the violent crime in the area.
"It's kind of become the norm, which is sad. But we've learned to adjust to it," one neighbor said.
One woman we spoke with from New York said DC Police should do a better job of patrolling problem areas.
"NYPD does patrol the blocks a little bit better than I see in D.C.," she said. "I haven't seen one cop car yet since I've been here."