"Turning Pain Into Purpose: Say My Son's Name," a play by Strong Azz Mothers

The Prince Georges' county courthouse in Upper Marlboro, MD.

The Washington Post

staff

Family Of Slain Kathryn Gatlin Opposes Release Of Killer

Reginald Dwayne Betts - Washington, DC

District Heights deals with violence as a shooting leave two injured and a dog dead.

Prince George’s County begins its curfew for children under 17. 

For the Washington Post

16 Year Old Fatally shot By Maryland State Trooper

Vintage Car Enthusiasts May Lose Their Meeting Place

Staff Photographer

For The Washington Post

Respond to prefers-color-scheme dark in app web views

Follow section front redirects in Spectrum

Enable NLP source in PCS for load testing

Switch off the News Alerts Survey Widget when we have enough responses

Poll to determine if new LUF updates are available

Allows the winning A/B test variant to be turned on without Spectrum deployment

Show infinite scrolling sections in Assembler MultiView

Show option for NLP article summaries in Action Bar

Show NLP summaries collection recirc on article pages

A general feature flag for Recipe Features that aren't yet released

Feature flag for media team features that aren't yet released

Use new Orca video player for preroll plugin in Spectrum

Show the snow tracker (instead of the heat tracker) on Spectrum

Kyle Finnegan’s rare hiccup helps Phillies to a 4-3 win in 10 innings

Joey Gallo returns, but Nats endure another quiet offensive night

Walter Johnson’s jersey from 1920 showdown with Babe Ruth sold at auction

In photos: The 149th running of the Preakness Stakes

Book Tour: At home with Amor Towles

Gov. Doug Burgum speaks in support of Trump

The world’s coolest hotels want to tell you a story

6 Airbnb red flags to spot before you make a booking mistake

Flying budget airlines might not be as cheap as it seems

Would you eat this weird sandwich? Barry Enderwick would. 

She finished chemo then got a medical degree: ‘The dream is real now’

Puppy abandoned with heart-rending note is adopted, named Minerva

Ukraine gamble pays off: Republicans face little backlash in primaries

How Jim Jordan tried to connect the dots on Biden’s $8 million book deal

‘Never Trump?’ ‘Never Biden’ voters might loom larger.

Top White House aide to meet Netanyahu, who is under political pressure

The other side of Punta Cana: A crackdown on Haitians

Mexican taquería’s new Michelin star puts street eats on par with gourmet food

Ask Amy: Should my husband get a say in what I do with my inheritance?

Carolyn Hax: Friends say to break other plans to avoid offending new man

Miss Manners: Gag gift falls flat

Biden’s false claim that inflation was 9 percent when he took office

Did Obamacare ‘massively’ increase the cost of health care?

Russia shows resilience. There is more to do for Ukraine.

Trump promises tax cuts and fewer rules. CEOs shouldn’t fall for it.

Tariffs against China hamstring the transition to a clean energy future

Blue Origin to fly again as space tourism struggles to get off the ground

Boeing delays spaceflight again as it continues to struggle with leak

Why this company’s biggest fans turned against it

Trump

Family photo

Johnny Lee Shepherd, 87, went to the grocery store one evening in 2022 but didn’t return home.

His wife, Rodean Shepherd, grew worried. She knew he had early-onset dementia, but he had never gotten lost before. And his van — the one where he would listen to Michael Jackson’s “Off the Wall” record over and over again — was still outside their home.

Shepherd’s wife would later go to the office of the Beltsville, Md., condominium complex that she and her husband had lived in for about 50 years, where someone told her that Shepherd had been assaulted and rushed to a hospital. He was attacked, prosecutors said, after an alleged car ding from the door of Shepherd’s van led a woman to hit him and call her boyfriend to the scene.

On Wednesday, the man arrested in the attack, Julias Wright, of Hyattsville, Md., pleaded guilty to second-degree murder while on trial for the fatal beating of Shepherd, which was <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/15/murder-charge-videotaped-beating-vehicle/" target="_blank">captured on surveillance video</a> in 2022.

“It was on tape. I mean, how could you deny?” said Shepherd’s 58-year-old daughter, Donna Hicks.

Wright, 27, faces 18 years in prison, prosecutors said. The trial began Monday and had been scheduled to last until Thursday, according to online court records. An attorney for Wright listed in online court records did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

According to charging documents, on June 2, 2022, Prince George’s County police officers responded to the 11300 block of Cherry Hill Road for a reported assault and found Shepherd unresponsive. He was “on the ground with his eyes swollen shut,” the documents read, and had injuries to his head and face. At the hospital, it was determined that Shepherd suffered “principal traumatic brain injury,” fractures and other injuries, according to the charging documents.

Investigators obtained surveillance footage of the assault. According to the charging documents, the video first showed Shepherd parking his van and getting out of the car. He was then confronted by a woman, whom prosecutors said was Wright’s girlfriend, who blocked him from getting back into his car. Shepherd tried to push the woman away, and a physical altercation took place with the woman repeatedly punching him in the face, the charging documents said.

Hicks said the tape showed that the woman approached her father and that he was defending himself. Rodean Shepherd said, “It really frightened him, the way she approached him.”

Police had charged the woman with assault, but the charge no longer appears in online court records.

Shepherd then walked away toward his home nearby, while the woman called someone, police said in the charging documents. Within 16 minutes, Wright, her boyfriend, arrived in a white pickup truck.

Wright approached when Shepherd was walking back to his car, according to the charging documents. Wright then went back to his car to take off his jacket. When he approached Shepherd again, he hit Shepherd in the head with a closed fist.

Rodean Shepherd said her husband was trying to show Wright their car insurance, but “he didn’t get a chance.”

<a href="https://twitter.com/PGPDNews/status/1534904949716537344?s=20&t=-lcsAsAZm-5d9VXHK_2Cqw" target=_blank>Surveillance video</a> shows Shepherd fall to the ground, as Wright stands over him and repeatedly punches and stomps on him while on the ground. Wright hit Shepherd nine times with a closed fist and stomped on his head, according to the charging documents. At the time, Wright was 6 feet 2 inches and 270 pounds, while Shepherd was 5 foot 9 inches and 165 pounds.

Wright fled the scene in a pickup truck that he was leasing from a rental car company, according to the charging documents.

Rodean Shepherd said she and her husband were enjoying their retirement years. They traveled across the country, from Disney World in Florida to Las Vegas and California. Born in Birmingham, Ala., Johnny Shepherd had lived in the D.C. area for years and retired from Giant Foods. The grandfather was beloved by community members, his wife said, often found in the shopping aisles surrounded by people laughing as he told them jokes.

“If you met my husband, you would love him,” said Rodean Shepherd, 76.

Hicks said her father was a “distinguished gentleman” with a fondness for well-crafted Stetson hats. She would have to stand on tiptoe to hug his neck, the smell of her father’s cologne lingering after every hug, Hicks said.

Shepherd was “rendered nonverbal” and “lost his ability to walk,” which police said in the charging documents was a result of the attack.

Hicks said she can’t recall the last conversation she had with her father.

“He declined rapidly in front of our eyes,” she said. “We never were able to talk to him again.”

Shepherd was released from the hospital on hospice care July 19, 2022.<i> </i>Within days, Shepherd was found unresponsive in his bed and was pronounced dead. The Officer of the Chief Medical Examiner ruled his death a homicide in September 2022, police said.

Wright’s plea has given the family some solace, but for Hicks, there’s still a “roller coaster” of emotions, including forgiveness.

“Every day this week, he has expressed profound sorrow, regret, pain,” Hicks said of Wright. “I feel sad for him. … I know my father is resting. I cannot imagine the life [Wright]<b> </b>has ahead of him, where he is going.”

First Place, Best College Feature Writing, Ohio Society of Professional Journalists

Ohio State University, BA in journalism

Jasmine Hilton is a reporter covering crime and courts on the Metro desk at The Washington Post.

Jasmine Hilton

Md. man pleads guilty to fatally beating 87-year-old man in 2022

the-washington-post

handout

name

washpost

prism://prism.query/site-articles-only,/local/public-safety&limit=20

Local Crime & Public Safety

The Washington Post is your source for crime news and crime reports in Washington, DC, Maryland, and Virginia.

prism://prism.query/site-no-byline,/local/public-safety/&limit=3

Fast, informative and written just for locals. Get The 7 DMV newsletter in your inbox every weekday morning.

D.C., Md. & Va.

The Washington Post offers breaking local news, weather and traffic information for the DC, Maryland and Virginia metro areas, plus information about school districts, crime, government, religion, the lottery,restaurant reviews and obituaries.