A 47-year-old Washington, D.C., man has been charged with first-degree murder after police say he fatally shot a 27-year-old Maryland man at a bus stop on Minnesota Avenue Northeast early on Thursday, October 29, 2026, and was then shot by a police officer less than 20 minutes later at a second scene two blocks away. The Metropolitan Police Department identified the man who died as Yeferson Moreno-Gimenez, 27, of Temple Hills, Maryland, and the accused man as William Louis Chase Jr., 47, of Northwest Washington, D.C.
The case, announced by police on October 30, 2026, joins two investigations that will now run in parallel: a homicide investigation into the bus stop killing, and a separate investigation into the officer-involved shooting that left the suspect hospitalised. Police have not released a motive, have not said whether the two men knew each other, and have not said what, if anything, was said or happened at the bus stop before the first shot was fired. A charge is an allegation, not a conviction, and Chase is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.
According to the Metropolitan Police Department, Sixth District officers responded at approximately 5 a.m. on Thursday, October 29, to the 4100 block of Minnesota Avenue Northeast, in Northeast Washington, after a report of a shooting at a bus stop. When officers arrived, they found Moreno-Gimenez unconscious and not breathing, suffering from a gunshot wound. D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services took him to a local hospital, where, despite lifesaving efforts, he was pronounced dead.
The second call came at 5:19 a.m., from the 3900 block of Minnesota Avenue Northeast, about two blocks from the first scene. Police said a man was waving and firing a gun in a shopping centre parking lot. As officers arrived and got out of their cruisers, police say the armed man shot at a bystander who was walking out of a nearby business. An officer responded by firing a patrol rifle, hitting the suspect. D.C. Fire and EMS treated the suspect at the scene and took him to a local hospital in critical condition. No officers or bystanders were injured in the gunfire at the second scene, police said.
Detectives later determined that the gunman in the parking lot was the man responsible for the fatal bus stop shooting earlier that morning, the department said. Police recovered the handgun used at the second scene. Chase was arrested and charged with murder in the first degree, felony assault on a police officer and emergency personnel, and assault with a dangerous weapon, a gun. FOX 5 DC later reported that Chase was still hospitalised after the officer-involved shooting.
In the first hours after the two shootings, local reporting described both men as being in critical condition, and the interim police chief was quoted as saying both men were in critical condition. Police later confirmed that Moreno-Gimenez had died and publicly released the identities of both men, together with the charges against Chase. That sequence — an early, uncertain account followed by a confirmed death and a formal charge — is common in the first day of a fast-moving shooting investigation, and it is why the department's October 30 statement, which names both men and lists the charges, is the account this article relies on for the confirmed facts.
Minnesota Avenue Northeast runs through a busy corridor of Northeast Washington, where bus stops, shops and homes sit close together and where the first commuters of the day are often on the street before sunrise. A shooting at about 5 a.m. at a bus stop therefore strikes at a place and an hour associated with ordinary travel to work, not with late-night crowds. Police have not said whether Moreno-Gimenez was waiting for a bus, had just left one, or was simply standing at the stop, and they have not released any account of an argument or encounter before the shooting.
The Sixth District, which covers much of Northeast Washington, handled both calls, and the department's Homicide Branch is investigating Moreno-Gimenez's death. The second scene — a business parking lot in the 3900 block — is the part of the case that will be examined separately, because it involves an officer firing a weapon. Under department policy, the officer who fired has been placed on administrative leave, a standard step while an officer-involved shooting is reviewed.
Washington's handling of officer-involved shootings involves two distinct tracks, and the department's statement keeps them apart. The Internal Affairs Bureau's Force Investigations Team, which investigates all law enforcement officer-involved shootings in the District, is investigating the officer's gunfire. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia will conduct an independent review of that shooting. Body-worn camera video will be made public in accordance with District law, police said, though no release date was given in the statement.
That structure matters for what the public will learn, and when. The homicide case asks who shot Moreno-Gimenez and why; the force investigation asks whether the officer's decision to fire, in the moment when police say an armed man was firing at a bystander, met department policy and the law. The two questions can reach different answers, and they are deliberately not answered by the same team.
What police have confirmed is specific: the two locations, the two times, the identities and ages of the victim and the accused man, the three charges, the recovery of a handgun at the second scene, the fact that no officer or bystander was injured in the second exchange, and the administrative leave and review steps that follow an officer-involved shooting. The department's statement also gives the case number for the investigation, CCN 26155305, and a public tip line for anyone with information.
What police have not confirmed is equally important, and this article does not fill those gaps. Police have not publicly established a motive for the shooting. They have not disclosed the circumstances leading to the confrontation at the bus stop. They have not said whether Moreno-Gimenez and Chase knew each other, whether the bystander at the second scene was targeted or simply in the line of fire, or how many shots were fired at either scene. Investigators also have not released the identity of the bystander or said whether that person was injured — police said no bystanders were injured in the gunfire at the second scene, but they have not named the person the suspect is said to have shot at.
Nor have police released a timeline of Chase's movements between the two scenes, or said how detectives linked the two incidents beyond the department's statement that the investigation determined the same individual was involved in both. Those details, if they are released, will most likely come through charging documents, a court hearing, or a further police statement, rather than through speculation in the meantime.
There has been no public statement in the sources read for this article from Moreno-Gimenez's family, and no statement from Chase or a lawyer representing him. The department's own account is therefore the principal on-the-record source, and it is written in the careful language of an active investigation: it states what officers found, what they recovered, and what charges were filed, and it stops where the evidence stops.
The department did confirm the procedural consequences that follow an officer-involved shooting in the District. The officer who fired has been placed on administrative leave pursuant to department policy. The Internal Affairs Bureau's Force Investigations Team is investigating that shooting, and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia will conduct an independent review. Body-worn camera video will be made public in accordance with District law. Those steps are not a finding about the shooting; they are the review process that follows every officer-involved shooting in the city.
Police also issued a direct appeal for help. Anyone with information about either shooting is urged to contact D.C. police at 202-727-9099 or to text an anonymous tip to 50411. That appeal matters in a case built, so far, on two scenes minutes apart and two blocks apart: witnesses at a bus stop at 5 a.m. and in a parking lot at 5:19 a.m. may hold the missing pieces — what happened before the first shot, and whether the two men had any connection at all.
This case matters for three reasons that go beyond a single morning's violence. First, it is a homicide at a bus stop, a piece of everyday public infrastructure, at an hour when the city is waking up. Shootings in such places unsettle commuters in a way that violence in a private home does not, because the victim could, in the public imagination, have been anyone waiting for a bus. Second, it is a case in which the suspect was himself shot by police minutes later, which means the criminal case and the police-use-of-force review will unfold side by side, each watched by a public that may judge one by the standards of the other. Keeping those tracks separate — as the department's statement does — is essential to a fair outcome in both.
Third, the case is a reminder of how much remains unknown in the first days after a shooting, even when the basic facts seem clear. The identities, the charges and the two scenes are confirmed. The motive, the relationship between the men, and the trigger for the first shot are not. In a city where homicide cases are often debated online within hours, the gap between what is confirmed and what is guessed is where misinformation takes hold. This article stays inside the confirmed facts, and says plainly where they end.
For the neighbourhood around Minnesota Avenue Northeast, the practical questions are also immediate: whether bus service was disrupted during the investigation, how long the scenes remained closed, and what reassurance residents and early-morning commuters can expect. Police have not published those operational details in the statement relied on here, and this article does not invent them. What is certain is that two crime scenes, two blocks apart, were worked by the same district's officers in the same early morning, and that the investigation is now in the hands of homicide detectives and the force investigations team.
Several things will happen next, in an order that is largely set by procedure rather than by public pressure. Chase, who remained hospitalised after being shot by police, will face the criminal process on the three charges — murder in the first degree, felony assault on a police officer and emergency personnel, and assault with a dangerous weapon — once he is medically able to appear. A first-degree murder charge in the District is among the most serious charges available, and it will be tested in court, where prosecutors must prove the killing and where the defence will have the opportunity to challenge the evidence.
The officer-involved shooting will be reviewed separately by the Internal Affairs Bureau's Force Investigations Team, with an independent review by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia. Body-worn camera video will be made public in accordance with District law, which should give the public a direct view of the second scene, subject to whatever redactions the law requires. No date for that release was given in the police statement.
Investigators will also continue to seek witnesses. The tip line — 202-727-9099, or text 50411 — remains the route for anyone who was at the bus stop, in the parking lot, or nearby at either time to come forward. If a motive emerges, if a relationship between the two men is established, or if charging documents add detail about the minutes between the two scenes, those will be new developments, and they will be reported as such rather than folded silently into the existing account.
For now, the confirmed record is this: a 27-year-old man from Temple Hills, Maryland, is dead; a 47-year-old man from Northwest Washington is hospitalised and charged with his murder and with assault counts arising from the confrontation with police; and two investigations — one into a killing, one into an officer's gunfire — are under way.
Police identified the victim as Yeferson Moreno-Gimenez, 27, of Temple Hills, Maryland. He was found unconscious and not breathing with a gunshot wound at a bus stop in the 4100 block of Minnesota Avenue Northeast at about 5 a.m. on Thursday, October 29, 2026, and was pronounced dead in hospital despite lifesaving efforts.
William Louis Chase Jr., 47, of Northwest Washington, D.C., was charged with murder in the first degree, felony assault on a police officer and emergency personnel, and assault with a dangerous weapon, a gun. A charge is an allegation, not a conviction.
At 5:19 a.m., about 19 minutes after the first call and two blocks away, police were called to a business parking lot in the 3900 block of Minnesota Avenue Northeast, where a man was reported waving and firing a gun. Police say the man shot at a bystander leaving a nearby business, and an officer fired a patrol rifle, hitting him. No officer or bystander was injured in that exchange, and police recovered a handgun at the scene.
Yes. The officer has been placed on administrative leave under department policy. The Internal Affairs Bureau's Force Investigations Team is investigating the officer-involved shooting, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia will conduct an independent review, and body-worn camera video will be made public in accordance with District law.
Police have not released a motive, have not said whether the victim and the accused man knew each other, and have not disclosed what led to the confrontation at the bus stop or how many shots were fired at either scene. Anyone with information is asked to call D.C. police at 202-727-9099 or text an anonymous tip to 50411.
Related coverage on US News Pulse: the Justice Department's criminal cases and how they are charged, in our report on the third criminal case against former FBI director James Comey, and federal voting prosecutions in our coverage of the Justice Department's illegal-voting charges across five states.
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