A 22-year-old Metrobus rider was gunned down by other riders just after midnight Thursday in Southeast D.C. Police had not made any arrests in the slaying of Demetrius Emmanuel Thompson as of late Thursday. They did not release a motive in the case, nor descriptions of the suspects.
But initial reports said the shooters were trying to get the victim off the bus, Metro spokesman Dan Stessel said. Thompson was then shot at least four times while standing in the doorway of the W4 Metrobus, he said.
Thompson was found lying in the street on Alabama Avenue near Suitland Parkway, according to D.C. Metropolitan Police. He died en route to a trauma center.
| Have a tip? |
| Police plan to review video from the cameras on the bus. But they ask anyone with information about Thursday’s slaying to call 202-727-9099 or 888-919-CRIME (888-919-2746). Tipsters also can anonymously reach the D.C. Crime Solvers tip line by text messaging 50411. Tipsters could be eligible for up to $25,000 rewards. |
Homicides in the Metro system are rare. In 2009, a 21-year-old was shot in the middle of the day while boarding a bus on H Street in Northeast D.C. Last year, another 21-year-old man was found fatally stabbed inside the Congress Heights station just before the system shut down for the night.
Thompson’s mother doesn’t know why he would have been shot. He was a happy, family-oriented person who kept to himself, Talaya Thompson told The Washington Examiner.
“That’s the shocking thing,” she said. “He didn’t hang out in the street.”
She said she was proud of her son for staying out of trouble. “We’ve lived most of our lives in Southeast D.C. He didn’t go that route and sell drugs,” she said.
He recently received his commercial driver’s license, hoping to be become a long-haul truck driver like his uncle so he could travel and provide for his family, she said.
He had fallen in love with travel through a program in junior high that sent him to Arizona and Atlanta. He recently asked about getting a passport, she said. And he told her he hoped to save his first paycheck as a trucker so he could take his two kids to Disney World.
He had just celebrated his children’s second and third birthdays with ice cream cake in a party with relatives, she said.
Thompson was on his way home when he was shot, she said. It was the usual bus he took and was just about 10 minutes from the home he shared with her.
It’s the same bus she takes to get to her job as a nursing assistant, often late at night for her shifts. She said she’s never had any problems, even at night.
And she said she plans to keep taking the bus. “That’s my way to work.”
