WASHINGTON — A 24-year-old Maryland man has pleaded guilty to one count of voluntary manslaughter in the 2020 killing of a teenager in Northwest, D.C.
Brandon Nguyen is expected to serve a sentence of seven to 11 years in prison, followed by supervised release, for the shooting death of 17-year-old Brian Ward.
His sentencing is scheduled for April 26, 2023.
According to evidence from the government, on Sept. 29, 2020, around 4 p.m., officers with the Metropolitan Police Department responded to the sound of gunshots in the 300 block of Allison Street, Northwest.
At the scene, witnesses described seeing a dark blue sedan speed off after a shooting.
Further investigation revealed that Brandon Nguyen was driving the sedan and that he had met with 17-year-old Brian Ward for a suspected drug deal at the scene of the shooting.
Ward was never seen alive again after getting into Nguyen's car, and investigators say there was likely a struggle over a gun within the car by Ward and Nguyen, which led to the shooting.
Detectives say even further investigation revealed that Nguyen drove the teenager's body 15 miles up the road to the 6900 block of Contee Road in Laurel, Maryland after the shooting, before dumping the body in the woods.
Police say Nguyen later used bleach to clean his car, and subsequently sold the car.
In December 2021, police confronted Nguyen concerning this incident, and he told officers that he shot the 17-year-old following a struggle over a gun.
He then led detectives to the location of Ward's remains.
Further forensic examination and testing by the Maryland Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives revealed that Nguyen fired at least six shots and Ward was shot in the neck and front and rear of his head.
Nguyen was arrested on November 21, 2022, and has been in custody since that time.
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