D.C. police have arrested and charged a man with second-degree murder in the fatal shooting of a woman in Northwest Washington — an arrest that came as officers were searching for the victim’s 2-year-old son.
The boy was found unharmed Wednesday just before 11 a.m. in an apartment building with two men, including one matching the description of a person in a video connected to the homicide, said interim D.C. police chief Jeffery Carroll.
Officers responded to the 600 block of Kenyon Street NW around 11 p.m. Tuesday for reported gunshots, Carroll said. They found an injured woman in an alley — later identified as 25-year-old Jamillah Gales, of no fixed address, who was pronounced dead at the scene.
Video showed the woman was involved in an argument in the alley with a man, who then shot her and fled, police said. As officers worked to identify the woman, they learned that her 2-year-old son, Royce Hawkins, was unaccounted for. He had last been seen on Kenyon Street NW around 7 p.m. with his mother.
Police issued an Amber Alert for the missing boy, and officers canvassed the area and went door-to-door with fliers. Crediting police officers and information from community members, Carroll said Royce was located in an apartment building on the same block where he was last seen.
The boy was inside with a man matching the description of an individual seen in the video. Police arrested the man, Carroll said. His identity will be released once positively confirmed, police said.
UPDATE: Royce Hawkins has been located unharmed. The AMBER Alert is canceled. We thank the community for their assistance and will provide updates on the investigation shortly. https://t.co/R0iWqWTovh
— DC Police Department (@DCPoliceDept) April 22, 2026
Police are still investigating the relationship between Gales and the man, Carroll said. But he said that the person who was arrested is not the boy’s biological father.
Carroll said Gales, the man and another adult were inside the apartment with the 2-year-old before the shooting.
Royce was taken to a hospital for evaluation, Carroll said. There were no visible signs of injury. Efforts to reach Gales’s relatives Wednesday afternoon were unsuccessful.
“This is a tragic, tragic circumstance,” Carroll said. “A simple argument turned into gunfire. There’s a 2-year-old child who no longer has a mother.”
Carroll provided an update on the Kenyon Street homicide Wednesday afternoon as police were investigating another shooting in the area.
Around noon, an officer fired their weapon in the 1000 block of Lamont Street NW while responding to a report of a man with a gun, Carroll said.
The man, wearing a bulletproof vest, had fired his weapon at least twice in different locations in the area before officers contained him in an alley. Carroll said the man was seen pointing the gun at officers in the alley, and an officer fired his weapon. The man was not struck.
Officers took him into custody. Carroll said the man appeared to be under the influence of a substance and was taken to a hospital. Police were working to identify the man, and recovered a gun at the scene.
“Especially today, there’s been a lot of things that have happened here in this area between the homicide, and now the officer-involved shooting,” Carroll said. “We appreciate all the assistance in both of these cases.”
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