WASHINGTON — A 20-year-old man has been arrested and charged in the murders of two men who were killed on Q Street in Northwest D.C. on July 25, D.C. Police Chief Robert Contee announced during a news conference Tuesday.
The shooting happened in the 100 block of Q Street leaving 22-year-old Jovan Hill, Jr. and 19-year-old Tariq Riley dead.
A third person was also hurt during the shooting and was located at a local hospital where they were treated for a non-life-threatening gunshot wound, police said.
Contee announced Tuesday that MPD arrested 20-year-old Jalen Browne, of Upper Marlboro, Md., for the crime. Brown is charged with two counts of premeditated first-degree murder while armed, Contee said.
Back in July, we spoke to resident Brenda Stewart who told us that she was standing in her front courtyard right down the street talking to a neighbor when shots rang out.
"We heard pow, pow, pow, pow, pow, pow, pow. I knew it was gunshots," Stewart said. "I said to [my neighbor], I said 'those are gunshots.' He said, 'I'm going in the house.' So I too went into the house.”
Friends of 22-year-old Hill said he owned a clothing company called Loner Valley and grew up on Q Street. They said both Hill and Riley were talented.
“It is really sad to see that happening in this neighborhood because it is pretty [much] like [a] tight-knit community," Stewart's daughter, Niya Watkins, said.
Stewart has lived in her Q Street home for 30 years and she told us crime has long been a problem. She said she and her neighbors have experienced everything from bicycle thefts to assault and homicides.
“I don't understand why these things aren't being addressed," Stewart said. "And we're sandwiched in the middle."
Police reports show a man was shot and killed on the same block in 2020, 2017, and 2012.
Crime data show there have been more than 1,200 crimes in a 1,000-foot radius in the last eight years -- more than 200 of them violent.
Crime had actually been trending downward, however, the last few years. But 2021 is seeing a resurgence.