A Mount Vernon man has been convicted of second-degree murder for fatally shooting Brandon Wims outside the Old Mill Gardens apartments in 2022.
A Fairfax County Circuit Court jury returned a guilty verdict last night (Monday) against Kyjuan Trott-McLean, 44, convicting him of murder and a charge of using a firearm in the commission of a felony, Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano announced today.
“The extremely random nature of this crime is truly heartbreaking,” Descano said. “While one never fully heals from the loss of a loved one, especially in such an unexpected act of violence, I hope that this conviction can help provide solace to Mr. Wims’ family and the rest of our community.”
According to the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office, Trott-McLean shot Wims, a 31-year-old resident of Rockville, Maryland, in the 5800 block of St. Gregory Lane on Oct. 2, 2022 during an argument with his wife, an acquaintance of Wims:
Trott-McLean’s wife, Kezia Leckey, was an acquaintance of Wims, and the two met up that night, along with another friend of Leckey’s, Sapphire Lawrence. The three were sitting in Lawrence’s car talking at the time of the shooting.
At trial, prosecutors proved that the shooting stemmed from a dispute between Trott-McLean and Leckey. As Trott-McLean stood next to the vehicle and argued with Leckey, he stepped back from the vehicle, produced a 9mm firearm, and fired, striking Wims three times and grazing Leckey. He continued to fire as Lawrence, in the driver’s seat, sped off.
Lawrence drove Wims to Inova Mount Vernon Hospital. At the time, Fairfax County police said he was transferred to Inova Fairfax Hospital, where he died from his injuries.
Trott-McLean fled the scene and was able to evade law enforcement for nearly two months. Shortly after an $11,000 reward was offered for information, he was arrested in the 3800 block of Colonial Avenue in Mount Vernon on Dec. 1, 2022 after a brief police pursuit.
A sentencing hearing has been scheduled for May 3. Trott-McLean faces a maximum sentence of 43 years in prison.
Photo via Google Maps
Forensic evidence has led to arrest of a suspect in a shooting in Woodbridge last year that left one man dead and another injured.
Prince William police on Monday served warrants for murder, malicious wounding and use of a firearm in a felony on Zaire Lee Davis, 21, of no fixed address, at the Fairfax County jail, said county police Lt. Jonathan Perok.
Davis has been incarcerated since last summer in connection with a robbery in Annandale and a Father’s Day shooting in Reston.
Perok said recent forensic results linked Davis to the Jan. 16, 2023 shooting in Marumsco Plaza that left a 27-year-old man dead and another wounded.
Police were called to the 13900 block of Richmond Highway at 8:50 p.m. that night and found a 22-year-old man suffering from a gunshot wound to the lower body. He was taken to the hospital where his injuries were determined to be non-life threatening, police said.
A short time later, security officers from a nearby shopping center notified officers of a second man suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. Officers provided first aid to the victim, identified as Akeem Rashaud Williams, until rescue crews took him to the hospital, where he died of his injuries.
The investigation revealed a group was in the area when gunshots were fired, striking the two men. While investigating, officers learned that an occupied car traveling on U.S. 1 was also hit by gunfire.
Perok said the shooting is believed to have stemmed from a previous altercation and ongoing dispute between the men involved.
Mugshot via FCPD. This article was written by FFXnow’s news partner InsideNoVa.com and republished with permission. Sign up for InsideNoVa.com’s free email subscription today.
A man already convicted of possessing child pornography has been sentenced to life in prison for shooting a fellow military veteran nearly seven years ago.
Jaeyoung Lee was sentenced to life, plus 48 years in prison for shooting Jeremy Tammone on Oct. 21, 2017, leaving him permanently injured, Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano announced Friday (Jan. 26).
Lee, who served in the U.S. Navy for seven years, waited outside Tammone’s apartment in the Franconia District and shot him three times after he answered the door, according to the commonwealth’s attorney’s office.
Tammone is a 50-year-old Army and Marine veteran who was working at that time as a Defense Department contractor, according to an NBC4 report. He was also a friend of a woman who had recently broken up with Lee.
According to prosecutors, Lee had spent months stalking his ex-girlfriend, including by “hacking her social media accounts to monitor her messages, installing cameras in her home, and making copies of her apartment door locks to practice unlocking them.”
Police quickly identified Lee as a suspect in Tammone’s shooting, per NBC4, but his arrest didn’t come until Jan. 9, 2018 after detectives found a device with child pornography images and videos during a search of Lee’s apartment in the “Alexandria section” of Fairfax County.
Initially charged with 20 counts of child porn possession, Lee was ultimately convicted on 100 counts in January 2020, according to Descano’s office. The conviction was appealed and sustained by a three-judge panel in July 2021.
In that case, Lee was sentenced on June 12, 2020 to a total of 20 years in prison — one year for each of the 100 charges, with 80 of them running concurrently instead of consecutively — but 15 years were suspended, giving him five years of active jail time, a spokesperson for the commonwealth’s attorney’s office says.
For the shooting, prosecutors pushed for a life sentence because they believe Lee’s “actions indicate that he remains a serious danger to the community,” Descano said. Lee was convicted of seven felonies in a May 2023 trial.
“Over a period of months, he planned and calculated, committing multiple felonies as he stalked his ex-girlfriend,” Descano said. “This period of dangerous obsession culminated in one of the worst possible outcomes: a victim’s life permanently destroyed.”
Tammone continues to suffer from the brain and organ damage he sustained from the shooting, which left him unable to eat or drink, NBC4 reported. He and his family told the news station that they felt Lee’s sentencing was an “appropriate close of…this horrific chapter” of their lives.
In addition to the life sentence for aggravated malicious wounding, Lee received three years for using a firearm in a felony, 20 years for malicious computer trespassing, 10 years for possessing burglary tools, and five years each for wiretapping and two counts of using a computer to obtain personal information, per Descano’s office.
“Individuals who pose this kind of danger receive sentences that first and foremost keep the community safe,” Descano said. “I’m grateful to the detectives and prosecutors who helped bring this case through to the end, and I hope that closing the book today brings a measure of justice the victims and their families.”
The commonwealth’s attorney’s office also announced a life-in-prison sentence on Friday for McLean resident Megan Hargan, who shot and killed her mother and sister on July 14, 2017.
A McLean woman will serve two life sentences in prison for murdering her mother and sister in 2017, county prosecutors announced today (Friday).
Megan Hargan received the two life sentences for fatally shooting her mother, Pamela Hargan, 63, and Helen Hargan, 24, in their house on July 14, 2017. She also got an additional sentence of six years in prison for two gun-related charges, according to the Fairfax County Office of the Commonwealth’s Attorney.
Hargan was convicted by a jury in September of first-degree murder and use of a firearm in a felony. It was her second conviction after an initial one handed down in March 2022 got vacated by a judge who determined that a juror had improperly experimented with a rifle at home to see if Helen Hargan could’ve died by suicide, as defense attorneys alleged.
“Megan Hargan’s actions in July 2017 go beyond what most of us can imagine,” Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano said. “On a quiet Friday morning in her mother’s home, she made an irreversible decision — one that would devastate her family and tear the community apart. First-degree murder is the most serious offense you can be convicted of in Virginia, and today’s sentence reflects the gravity of the defendant’s crimes.”
After finding the bodies of Pamela and Helen Hargan inside their home in the 6700 block of Dean Drive, the Fairfax County Police Department initially characterized the deaths as a murder-suicide incident, but they suspected early on that the scene might have been staged.
Police and prosecutors later argued that Megan Hargan had killed her mother and sister over a financial disagreement.
More from the Office of the Commonwealth’s Attorney:
On the afternoon of July 14, 2017, Megan Hargan, 41, shot Pamela, 63, and Helen, 24, in Pamela’s McLean home where the three were living at the time, along with Hargan’s then-8-year-old daughter. Hargan staged the house as a murder-suicide and claimed that younger sister Helen had killed their mom before killing herself.
Evidence presented at trial showed that the conflict stemmed from a financial dispute: Megan, who was buying a house in West Virginia, resented that her mother, Pamela, wasn’t helping her financially but was at the same time helping her sister Helen to buy a house. On July 13, the day before the killings, Megan attempted to transfer upwards of $400,000 from her mother’s bank account to pay for Megan’s new house, which was closing that day. The transaction was flagged as fraud, and the next day Megan shot her mother before attempting to make the same wire transfer again from her mother’s account. She then shot her sister Helen, who was upstairs at the time. Both family members were killed by a .22 rifle, which belonged to Megan’s husband and was being stored in the McLean house temporarily.
Megan Hargan was arrested on Nov. 9, 2018.
“This was a complicated case to prosecute, and we would not be here today without the detectives, witnesses, and family members who persisted through two lengthy, emotional trials,” Descano said. “I want to express my gratitude for their resolve in bringing this case to justice.”
The police investigation into Fairfax County’s first homicide of 2024 has resulted in a murder charge against a 14-year-old.
The teen allegedly stabbed a 17-year-old boy in Annandale at 11:30 p.m. on Saturday (Jan. 13), killing him, the Fairfax County Police Department reported last night (Thursday).
The 14-year-old and an 18-year-old man who tried to intervene were also injured, according to police.
“During the assault, the 14-year-old lost control of the knife and was stabbed by the victim,” the FCPD said. “The 18-year-old heard the commotion, attempted to intervene, and was injured in the process.”
The 14-year-old remains hospitalized and in police custody.
Here’s more on the stabbing in the Fairmont Gardens apartments from the original police report:
At 11:30 p.m. last night, officers responded to the 4200 block of Wadsworth Court in Annandale for a stabbing that occurred outside. Officers found the 17-year-old in a grassy area suffering from stab wounds. Fire and rescue personnel transported him to the hospital where he was pronounced deceased. The 14-year-old was found inside a nearby apartment and was also taken to the hospital, where he remains. As detectives were investigating an 18-year-old entered the hospital and was treated for injuries believed to be related to the stabbing.
Detectives are actively investigating the circumstances that led to the stabbing. This is not domestic related, and both juveniles are known to each other from previous disputes. Detectives believe all parties from this incident are accounted for.
The same apartment complex was the site of a shooting that hospitalized a woman on Tuesday (Jan. 16). In an update released yesterday, the FCPD said the circumstances of the shooting remain under investigation, but detectives don’t believe it was a random act.
“The suspect, accompanied by two other subjects, was briefly allowed into the apartment before discharging shots,” the police department said, noting that the apartment unit is “well-known to area officers.”
A teen was hospitalized last night (Tuesday) after getting shot outside Tropical Smoothie Cafe in Lincolnia’s Pinecrest Plaza.
Police officers were called to the 6500 block of Little River Turnpike just before 8 p.m. in response to “multiple calls for a shooting,” the Fairfax County Police Department said today in a news release.
Found “a short distance away,” the 14-year-old boy was shot in the arm and taken to a hospital with injuries considered non-life-threatening.
Based on a preliminary investigation, detectives determined that the teen and another individual were standing outside Tropical Smoothie (6552 Little River Turnpike, Unit A) when the shooting occurred, according to police.
“Both the victim and subject ran a short distance away and called the police,” the FCPD said. “No additional injuries resulting from the gunfire were reported.”
The circumstances of the shooting remain under investigation, but the FCPD says it’s not believed to a random act. Police are seeking additional information or access to home surveillance footage as part of the investigation.
“Anyone with information regarding this shooting to call our Major Crimes Bureau at 703-246-7800, option 5,” the department said. “Tips can also be submitted anonymously through Crime Solvers by phone – (703)-246-4676, and by web.”
The incident at Pinecrest Plaza was the second shooting that the FCPD reported yesterday. A woman also reportedly arrived at a hospital with a gunshot wound shortly before 1 p.m. after a possible shooting at the Fairmont Gardens apartments in Annandale.
Fairfax County saw its first homicide of 2024 on Saturday (Jan. 13) from a stabbing in Annandale that killed a 17-year-old boy. Two other teens were injured in the incident.
Image via Google Maps
Fairfax County police are investigating a possible shooting at the Fairmont Gardens apartments in Annandale.
The woman arrived at a hospital with a gunshot wound early this afternoon, according to the Fairfax County Police Department, which describes her injuries as non-life-threatening.
Officers were dispatched to the 4200 block of Wadsworth Court around 12:51 p.m. after 911 received a call from someone who said they’d been shot, per scanner traffic on Open MHz.
“Someone’s saying they got shot in the hip,” the dispatcher told an officer who said he was at Wadsworth Court but hadn’t heard anything. “We’re just having a hard time understanding them. There’s a lot of screaming in the background.”
At 12:58 p.m., a police officer reported that they encountered two people at the scene. One person said they had been shot at but not hit, while another had a bloody hand after falling while running from gunshots.
The FCPD says it doesn’t have any description of a potential suspect right now. Police are advising community members to avoid the area, asking anyone with information to call 911.
UPDATE: The adult female’s injuries are non-life-threatening. Detectives continue to investigate.
— Fairfax County Police (@FairfaxCountyPD) January 16, 2024
Image via Google Maps
(Updated at 10:55 a.m.) Virginia State Police are seeking witnesses in a possible shooting incident that occurred this morning (Thursday) near the I-495 and Dulles Toll Road interchange in Tysons.
Troopers responded at 6:08 a.m. to a driver stopped in the shoulder along the Capital Beltway’s northbound lanes near the exit to the toll road’s westbound lanes, according to the VSP and scanner traffic on Open MHz.
The driver wasn’t injured, but he reported that his vehicle “had a bullet hole in its passenger side,” state police said.
Starting around 10:30 a.m., the VSP closed all northbound lanes on the Beltway at Route 7 (Leesburg Pike) to the toll road as it investigates the shooting.
“State police has requested the closure so we can search for any possible evidence connected to the vehicle that was shot,” a VSP spokesperson said.
The closure was expected to last 30 to 45 minutes.
State police are seeking potential witnesses, asking anyone who saw “suspicious activity in this area between 5:50 a.m. and 6:05 a.m.” to reach out by phone at 804-750-8798 or by email at questions@vsp.virginia.gov.
Update #Tysons: the time for this closure has been moved to 10:30 am.#VaTraffic #DMVTraffic https://t.co/9QrUFhLk2S
— VDOT Northern VA (@VaDOTNOVA) January 4, 2024
A Woodbridge man died Tuesday (Dec. 12) after getting shot in the Kingstowne area earlier that afternoon.
Fairfax County police officers were called to the 5300 block of Harbor Court Drive at 1:47 p.m. for a report of a shooting. A 911 caller said they saw someone pull out a gun and shoot at a black Dodge Charger, which drove off, according to the dispatch on Open MHz.
Officers didn’t find a victim or suspect while searching the area, but the Prince William County Police Department later received a call about a man with a gunshot wound at a local hospital. The Fairfax County Police Department says it was notified around 2:30 p.m.
Identified as Bryant Anthony Gillis, 23, the man died at the hospital.
“Detectives determined a friend who was with Gillis at the time of shooting drove him to the hospital,” the FCPD said, noting that he had arrived at the hospital in a black Dodge Charger.
As of 6:30 p.m. yesterday (Wednesday), police were still searching for a suspect. Based on evidence gathered so far, detectives believe the shooting was “isolated in nature,” an FCPD spokesperson said.
“Detectives are still looking into several leads. The suspect is still at large at this time,” the department’s public affairs bureau told FFXnow.
Preliminarily, this does not appear to be a random act. The suspect is still outstanding. Detectives continuing to investigate follow our blog, https://t.co/YUigMm3yDx for additional details when available.
— Fairfax County Police (@FairfaxCountyPD) December 13, 2023
A West Potomac High School student has been charged with murder in connection to a fatal shooting in October outside a D.C. bar.
Ashton Inabinet, a 16-year-old Hybla Valley resident, was arrested yesterday (Wednesday) and charged with second-degree murder while armed for allegedly shooting and killing 24-year-old D.C. resident Diamonte Lewis on Oct. 21, D.C. U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves announced.
Lewis was celebrating his birthday when the shooting broke out around 3:38 a.m., possibly following a fight, outside Nellie’s Sports Bar at the corner of 9th and U Streets NW, according to news and police reports.
Officers with the Metropolitan Police Department responded to the scene and found Lewis suffering from gunshot wounds, unconscious and unresponsive. He was pronounced dead at 3:50 a.m., leaving behind two children.
According to a police affidavit, Inabinet was identified as one of two people who fired shots that morning through surveillance video footage and an anonymous tip provided on Nov. 14. Both suspects were traced to Virginia schools, and West Potomac’s school resource officer confirmed Inabinet’s identity to detectives based on a “distinctive headband” seen in the surveillance video.
However, the MPD alleges in court documents that, without coordinating with detectives, Fairfax County police and Fairfax County Public Schools officials “essentially tipped off” Inabinet that he was under investigation, giving him time to confiscate evidence.
On Tuesday, November 28, 2023, West Potomac High School ordered Fairfax County Police to go to the defendant’s residence and notify them that the defendant was not allowed to return to school in reference to a D.C. investigation. This information provided the defendant approximately a week to remove evidence from the residence, such as clothing, 9mm semi-automatic pistol and/or 9mm ammunition of the same brand used during the homicide.
In statements first reported by WUSA9, the Fairfax County Police Department and FCPS said Inabinet was banned from school as a safety measure after MPD homicide detectives informed the West Potomac school resource officer on Nov. 28 that they intended to pursue charges against a student.
From the FCPD:
MPD homicide detectives appeared at a Fairfax County high school on Tuesday, November 28, interacted with a School Resource Officer and stated their intention to eventually pursue criminal charges against a Fairfax County high school student for a recent firearm murder in their jurisdiction. MPD detectives had not yet obtained criminal charges. We delivered a letter authored by Superintendent Dr. Michelle Reid banning the student, a murder suspect, from school until we received further information. This is a preventive action we own and stand by. The Fairfax County Police Department has a duty and responsibility to protect our students.
Reid says FCPS supports the FCPD’s actions.
“The safety of our schools remains our top priority and we will always act swiftly to protect our students and staff,” Reid said. “We continue to work collaboratively with Fairfax County Police, who are partners in this work, and we are in agreement with their statement.”
Inabinet pleaded not guilty at an arraignment yesterday in D.C. Superior Court. He’s currently in custody at the D.C. Central Detention Facility without bond after a judge “found probable cause that the defendant committed the murder,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office of D.C.
A preliminary hearing has been scheduled for next Wednesday, Dec. 13.
Image via Google Maps. Hat tip to Romeo (@RVANOVA01).
