The detectives had left, but videotapes and audiotapes were still rolling. And so when the two teens suspected in the shooting death of Osman Al-Akbar on Wednesday started yelling to each other through the wall dividing their interrogation rooms, MPD caught the whole conversation.
“A nigga ain’t gonna beat it, somebody gotta cop,” yelled out the 15-year-old.
“Cop to that junt,” yelled back 19-year-old Rashid Caviness-Bey, encouraging the younger suspect to take the full weight of the murder.
That conversation was reported in court documents made public today, just as Caviness-Bey and the 15-year-old were in court on charges of second-degree murder while armed.
Caviness-Bey was ordered held pending a preliminary hearing on the charge. That hearing is scheduled for Sept. 9.
The status of a 15-year-old juvenile arrested in the case is not known because reporters were not allowed into the courtroom.
According to the charging documents, an off-duty MPD officer working another job in 1400 block of Girard St NW heard several gunshots at about 1:39 a.m. Wednesday. Thinking they were coming from the direction of the 2600 block of University Place he walked in that direction and, in that block, saw two people standing on sidewalk and one person standing in the street. As the officer watched, the person in the street extended its arm downward and the officer heard a gunshot and saw a muzzle flash.
Al-Akbar was found suffering from gunshot wounds to his torso and head in the 2600 block of University Place NW. According to charging documents, he may have been the victim of a robbery: investigators said he had two bank withdrawal slips for a total of $180 but no money was found on him and his wallet was gone.
According to charging documents, two people matching the off-duty officer’s descriptions of suspects, now identified as Caviness-Bey and the juvenile, were found lying on the ground underneath a staircase near 15th and Fuller streets Northwest early Wednesday morning.
Near the staircase, investigators found a gun that smelled as though it had been recently fired.
According to the charging documents, the teens had a “lengthy” conversation about the charges they were facing while being held in separate interrogation rooms.
Said the juvenile:
On some real shit cuz. We all men. We can all go down for it and that don’t make sense. All of us could have been in for one junt and that don’t make no sense. I got too much going on.
Replied Caviness-Bey:
They was hitting us first.
Said the juvenile:
What’s that mean?
Said Caviness-Bey:
Hey, we was protecting ourselves man.
Said the juvenile:
Say what?
Said Caviness-Bey:
We was protecting ourselves.
Said the juvenile:
That’s ain’t gonna work. We gonna get burnt fucking around with that shit. Cuz, all of us in the same boat. If you cop, most they gonna give you is like 10. That’s better than 50.
Read the charging documents below.
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