2 suspects charged in shooting deaths of 2 boys, ages 12 and 14, in Northeast DC

Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Jeff Carroll, Interim Chief of Police here at the Metropolitan Police Department. I'm joined today by Assistant Chief Ramey Kyle of the Investigative Services Bureau and Commander Kevin Kentish of the Criminal Investigations Division. Today, we're providing an update on an investigation that occurred on April 14, 2026. This is the double homicide that occurred on Kenworth Avenue Northeast. On that afternoon, six district officers responded to the 700 block of Kenworth Avenue for the report of a shooting. When officers arrived, they located two young males who were shot near a food truck in the Circle 7 parking lot. 14-year-old Tyell Coates was pronounced on the scene. 12-year-old Milo Young was transported to an area hospital with life-threatening injuries. And despite all life-saving efforts, he later passed away. This tragic incident had a profound impact on the community. Yesterday evening, members of the 6th District Crime Suppression Team were on patrol when they observed 18-year-old Antonio Terry in the area of the 5000 block of H Street Southeast. Knowing that Mr. Terry was wanted in connection with this case, officers took him into custody without incident. Mr. Terry has been charged pursuant to a D.C. Superior Arrest Warrant with two counts of first-degree murder while armed, premeditated, for his role in the shooting deaths of 14-year-old Tyell Coates and 12-year-old Milo Young. And just within the past hour, a second suspect, Markell Woodings, was apprehended by the Capital Area Regional Fugitive Task Force. He is also being charged with two counts of first-degree murder while armed. I want to thank the members of MPD's Homicide Branch, the lead detective in this case, Detective Gabriel Truby, and the 6th District Crime Suppression Team for their persistence in this case. I also want to thank our partners at the Capital Area Regional Fugitive Task Force and the ATF for their support. Additionally, I want to express our gratitude to the community members who came forward with critical information in this case. I want to remind everyone that this case is still under investigation and a reward of up to $25,000 is offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for each homicide in the District of Columbia. Bringing the total award amount in this case up to $50,000. If you have any information that would help us in this case, we urge you to contact MPD at 202-727-9099 or text us at 50411. Our thoughts and prayers remain with the family, friends, and the entire community who continue to be impacted by this loss. We remain committed to ensuring the safety of our communities and will work tirelessly to bring all involved in this case to justice. At this time, I'll take any questions. So at this time, we don't believe there's any actual relationship between the suspects and victims. So we believe there was some conflict in the community, in one community that kind of spilled over, and as a response, this shooting occurred. So in this investigation, it does appear that these two young people were targeted, not specifically for who they are per se, but from what neighborhood they were from. We are continuing to investigate this case, as we mentioned, so that's why I wanted to mention if there is any additional information or folks have information, please share it with us. We do continue to investigate this case. Well, again, this is kind of still under investigation, so I'm kind of limited to how much information that I can give in this. But what we believe is there was an incident that occurred in one neighborhood, and this is kind of as a response to that. Sure. So right now, as I mentioned, we have two folks that we've charged in this case. Retaliatory is exactly what I'm saying. So there was an incident that happened in one neighborhood, and in response, this is in retaliation for that incident, is what we're believed at this point in time. Sure. So the second suspect that was arrested just about an hour ago, his name is Markell Woodings. He is here from Washington, D.C. Yes, so his first name is M-A-R-K-E-L-L. Last name is W-O-O-D-I-N-G-S. You know what his age is, Kevin? I don't know off the top of my head. We can follow back up with you on that. Teenager? I believe he's either in his late teens or early 20s. Yeah, so that's accurate overall. Gun violence in the city overall is down. We do see more of a decrease with adults than with juveniles. It's about as steady as it was last year. With that being said, it was down last year with that. I think it's one of the things that we see we're continuing to work to address overall gun crimes. You know, one of the things is for us to focus to getting illegal firearms off the street. We've also had several instances this year that's very notable that where young people have been injured by friends or other people if they had access to firearms. So one of the things about making sure that, A, young people don't have access to firearms in the home, may they be registered or unregistered, but making sure we limit those access is very important. yeah no so for the first one they knew he had the arrest warrant they were out in that that area uh he is known to be in that area obviously we patrol all areas across the district but when they saw him they knew he had the arrest warrant that's why they were able to place him under arrest yes so CAP at the capital area regional fugitive task force they're the ones that usually go out and a lot of our homicide cases if not all of them uh they had been looking for these individuals uh so they have been you know using a variety of methods we don't really get into how they do that but that they were able to kind of locate him in in that area I believe was somewhere in the seventh district I don't have the exact location right now though well as you may remember this is a very complex case I mean on the scene we did a press conference on the scene there were a lot of shell casings it's right along 295 so there's a lot of information coming and so the the tips and information that we got from the community were very helpful also there was video and pictures that were provided by community members that were in that area and happened to see that so it's instrumental in helping us to help develop the suspects in the case and also within this whole investigation. Yeah, absolutely. So social media played a role in this, communications over social media between individuals Also, some DNA evidence of shell casings that were collected on the scene was used in this case. So that's why I said this is a very, the detectives put a lot of effort. They do in every case, but this one especially with the social media, the different people that were involved, the DNA, there was a lot of aspects that went into this, as well as tying in information that we got from community members as well. So there was a lot of different sources that were in there. Detectives had to really go through to help to establish the probable cause. Because they lived in the neighbor, It's devastating. What do you say to families who send their kids to the food truck down the street and expect that they're going to come home? Yeah, this is a tragic, tragic incident. These boys did nothing besides go to the food truck. And that's why it's so important for us to make sure that we work to get illegal firearms off the street and individuals that have any information with this case. There are two people that are arrested, but there's other folks that are out there that have information. It's so important to share that with us. Because this could have been anyone's child that's out there, any young person. It's so tragic. I have not personally spoken to them. We have spoken to them, obviously, to let them know what's going on with this. I can only imagine just how affected they are by this. But I have not personally spoken to them at this point. They weren't recovered when they were arrested. We have recovered weapons throughout the investigation in other means. So, yes, they have been recovered, some of them. Yes, as I mentioned before, there was some of the shell casings we were able to obtain DNA and get some rush, some responses back to that. that was able to kind of point us in a direction of potential direction of uh towards one of the suspects that we were able to to tie in using social media and some other methods that are in there so it was instrumental and again different methods to kind of bolster the probable cause in this case that is correct i'll take a couple in the community that for somebody who's related yeah so we had we had another tragic uh shooting yesterday inside of a house over on 46. In that case, we do have an individual that we are looking for. I'm limited to what I can say with that because the individual is a juvenile in that case, but they are known to each other, and we are actively working on that case. So yesterday there was a stabbing at the D.C. jail. In that case, basically two inmates got into a fight. One of the inmates was stabbed several times inside a jail, and he later succumbed to his injuries. We have obviously identified the individual that was involved in that, So we're working with the U.S. Attorney's Office for an arrest warrant in that case to charge him. Yeah, this investigation is top of mind for us. Our detectives continue to work on this case day and night, checking a variety of leads, working on cases, checking areas. I don't want to get into too much of the specifics of what they've done, but rest assured that we have a lot of not only MPD detectives, we also have federal partners that are working on this case, working to not only determine specifically what happened, but also to locate Ms. Forbes. There are some people, there are some person of interest that we're looking at. No, I can't. Sure, so we spoke specifically to the next of kin that were involved in this case, but obviously people have other family members that are out there. You know, for me, this is a tragic instance. As I said, our hearts go out to the family members, the friends, the people that knew the young people in that community. So for us, again, we appreciate any information that comes in from the community. We continue to investigate this. And, you know, our goal is to hold the individuals that conducted this heinous, heinous killing responsible. So we will continue to push forward see this through the entire criminal justice process. Thank you