When Richard Anthony Karis bought his first home in Capitol Heights in 2005, his mother told him she was worried about the safety of the neighborhood. “When he first bought the house in Capitol Heights, I said, ‘You’re gonna get yourself killed,'” said his mother, Deborah Pilkerton Adkins.
Karis was indeed killed, but it was near his childhood home in Landover Hills.
Late on November 12, 2005, Karis and his friend Joe McDermott were driving from a restaurant in Bowie to the home of Karis’ girlfriend in D.C. On the way there they stopped by a convenience store in the 4600 block of 68th Avenue. According to Adkins, while Karis was asleep in the passenger seat, McDermott went into the store and chatted with a friend while buying ice tea.
As McDermott walked out of the store, he thought he heard something. He was then shot in the back and passed out. When he awoke he saw Karis lying in the parking lot. Karis died at 2:22 a.m.
Karis was one of the 164 people murdered in Prince George’s County in 2005, a record high for murders in the county according to a 2007 article by Capitol News Service.
“It was a banner year for homicide in Prince George’s County,” Adkins said.
Though there were three witnesses, including McDermott’s friend who was working inside the store, Karis’ case remains open. Last year, his mother wrote a letter to “America’s Most Wanted” to gain attention for the case.
Adkins, who talks to Prince George’s County Police a few times a year and emails periodically, said that presently investigators have no new leads. Prince George’s County did not respond in time for press deadline about the case.
