Delron Atchison and Vincent Gray were ordered held today after Judge Thomas Motley found substantial probability that they were involved in the fatal shooting of Demetrius Thompson on board a Metro bus in Southeast DC last month.
Both men are suspected of second-degree murder in connection with the case.
Friday’s brief preliminary hearing followed the arrests of two young women immediately outside the courtroom where the hearing was to be held. Detectives assigned to the Metro bus shooting case were present for the arrests and said that they were connected to the case.
Details of what that connection might be were not presented at the hearing, which centered on still photographs taken from surveillance video of the shooting from the bus.
Those photographs, said MPD Detective Norma Horne, show a man identified as Gray entering the bus, pointing to Thompson, then a man identified as Atchison passing Gray, raising a gun, and firing at Thompson.
Gray’s attorney, Anthony Matthews, argued that it wasn’t reasonable to assume that Gray knew Atchison’s intention and he could have been pointing to Thompson for any number of reasons. Matthews proffered that one possible reason for pointing would be to say, “let’s go give him a wedgie.”
Prosecutor Michael Liebman said that Atchison being the shooter did not let Gray off the hook because Gray had been involved in a dispute with Thompson just hours earlier and “had the motive” to go after Thompson.
Atchison and Gray were arrested at a Sheraton hotel in Orlando, Fla five days after Thompson was killed. Liebman argued that their presence there indicated consciousness of guilt on both their parts.
Motley ordered both men held on the charges. A status hearing was set for Feb. 10.
