Chet Matthews died early on the morning of May 26, 1992 after being shot in the chest at East Potomac Park. Nearly 20 years later, the man authorities believe shot Matthews has finally been arrested.
Lamont Terry, 37, was taken into custody in Columbia, S.C., the U.S. Marshals Service said.
D.C. police requested the U.S. marshals help in reopening the case and finding information about Terry’s whereabouts. In January, the Marshals Service in the District contacted the Columbia office to see whether it could find out for sure if Terry was in that city, said Deputy Amanda Lyons of the Marshals Service in Columbia.
Marshals arrested him on Jan. 20, and Terry was eventually brought back to D.C. Lyons said Terry had been in the Columbia area for a few years.
Terry appeared in D.C. Superior Court on Tuesday on a charge for first-degree murder while armed and was ordered to be held pending a preliminary hearing on March 20, said Bill Miller, spokesman for the District’s U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in D.C. has had a number of successes in prosecuting older cases, Miller said. In the past three years, the office obtained convictions in at least 10 cases where the murder took place more than eight years before the conviction.
“It’s not unheard of,” Miller said. “It does happen from time to time.”
Police responded to a gunshot report call at East Potomac Park at about 11:15 p.m. on May 25, 1992 and found Matthews suffering from a single gunshot wound, according to the affidavit supporting arrest warrant for Terry. Matthews was pronounced dead at 1:50 a.m. the next day at D.C. General Hospital.
The document said a witness informed of being in the park on the evening of May 25, 1992 and seeing several black men in a grassy area. The witness heard a single gunshot and saw the men run, get into a red car and drive away.
D.C. police also interviewed two witnesses who were among those who went with Terry to the park, the document stated. They pleaded guilty to their involvement in the incident and agreed to cooperate with authorities.
The witnesses said the group approached Matthews and a woman who were in a car. Terry ordered a Matthews out of a car while the rest of the group, including the witnesses, made the woman lie down before they searched the car for valuables.
Terry walked Matthews to a grassy area and demanded property, the witnesses said according to the affidavit. Terry then shot Matthews with a shotgun before Terry and the others drove away.
