D.C. police called on U.S. Park Police for backup on Saturday. They patrol in the nearby National Park, River Terrace Park.

Elvert Barnes / Flickr

A U.S. Park Police officer fatally shot a 17-year-old in Northeast D.C. on Saturday morning, marking the second killing by a law enforcement officer in D.C. in less than a month.

An officer, whom Park Police have not yet named, fatally shot Dalaneo Martin while they were both inside a vehicle at 34th and Baker Street Northeast. The USPP officer entered the vehicle while trying to detain Dalaneo, who was in driver’s seat. It’s unclear why the officer had entered the car, and officials have offered sparse details of the shooting, which took place around 9:30 a.m.

“It was a sad situation, an unfortunate situation,” Jay Brown, a community activist who was on the scene with Dalaneo’s family early Saturday morning, told DCist/WAMU on Monday. “That broke me down.”

When D.C. police arrived on the scene Saturday, Dalaneo was asleep in the driver’s seat of a running car. Officers then called on U.S. Park Police for backup after running the vehicles license plates and allegedly discovering it was a stolen car, a D.C. spokesperson told reporters on Saturday. (Park Police often patrol nearby at River Terrace Park, which is a National Park.)

When a USPP officer and sergeant arrived on the scene, they approached the car and attempted to “detain” Dalaneo, according to USPP Sergeant Thomas Twiname. An officer got into the backseat of the running car, and the sergeant remained outside the vehicle. The car then began to move. The sergeant was “dragged” from outside the car as it moved, while the other USPP officer was “trapped” inside the vehicle, according to Twiname. He did not explain why the officer entered the vehicle or how he became trapped, saying it was early on in the investigation. Per the USPP’s statement, the officer allegedly told Dalaneo to stop driving, and then shot him. The vehicle then rolled into a nearby home. Police recovered a gun inside the vehicle, but have not said whose it was, and have not released any information about the allegedly stolen vehicle.

The USPP declined to answer DCist/WAMU’s questions Monday morning, and directed inquiries to D.C. police, who are investigating the killing. D.C. Police did not provide any additional details about the shooting, citing a forthcoming press release. It’s unclear if the body camera footage of the D.C. officers on the scene will be released, or if the Park Police officers were wearing body cameras at the time of the shooting.

Nee Nee Taylor, co-founder of the abolitionist group Harriet’s Wildest Dreams, was on the scene with the teen’s family Saturday morning as she says they begged to see their family member, and for officers to speak to them directly about what happened. It took hours, Taylor told DCist/WAMU, for officials to speak with Dalaneo’s mother, Terra Martin, whom Taylor knows from working together in mutual aid groups. Martin was planning an upcoming easter egg hunt in Anacostia Park, Taylor said.

“She just fell in my arms, and said ‘Nee Nee, they didn’t let me identify Debo,'” Taylor told DCist/WAMU.

According to Taylor, Dalaneo was taken away in an ambulance before his mother could identify or see him, and his family waited hours before hearing any information from officers regarding his death. Taylor said his mother injured her hand Saturday morning after hitting a vehicle in frustration at the lack of information law enforcement had given her.

At first, USPP officials were only permitting members of the media to join officers for an on-the-scene briefing, prompting anger from Dalaneo’s family members on the scene. Taylor said eventually an MPD officer talked to his mother and allowed them to come to the press conference to hear from Sgt. Twiname.

“Several people made mistakes that day and only one person suffers the consequences is Debo, because he lost his life,” Taylor said. “Instead of clearing the car, or trying to shine a light on a person, make a noise, use the machine [to say] ‘hands up, police don’t move’ or even snatch them out of the car…it was a startle, it was an ambush,” Taylor said.

Lawyers with the firm A. Clarke Law Group released a statement Tuesday on behalf of Dalaneo’s family, calling for a “full investigation” into the officers involved in his murder. According to the release, his mother had “begged” the city for services to help her son, yet hadn’t received assistance. A date for Dalaneo’s vigil has not been set yet; his mother has set up a GoFundMe to help cover the memorial costs.

“How can we send our black children into the world knowing that they are targets?” reads a statement from attorney Andrew O. Clarke. “People walk across the street when they see our black children. Officers ‘jump out’ on our black children assuming they are armed.”

Just last week, Terra Martin had met with the mother of a different young Black man killed by police, according to the release.

“Give a uniform to someone and they want to take the law into their own hands,” reads her statement.

Dalaneo’s killing comes weeks after a U.S. Marshal fatally shot 22-year-old Alaunte Scott in the Washington Highlands neighborhood. Marhals were attempting to arrest Scott on a warrant when he allegedly tried to flee. D.C. Police Chief Robert Contee said officers fired after Scott produced a gun. Police have not confirmed whether Scott was holding the gun, or if he fired it. His mother, Alamta Scott, told the Washington Post that her son was shot in the back, indicating he was running away, not posing a threat. The Marshals were not wearing body cameras.

Also this year, D.C. police shot and seriously injured 38-year-old Steven Shaw while investigating an unrelated assault and mistaking him for the suspect. Earlier this month, MPD officers in Columbia Heights fired at a man who was later found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Per USPP policy in deadly use-of-force incidents, the shooting will be reviewed by MPD’s Internal Affairs Division, and the officers have been placed on paid administrative leave.

Dalaneo’s death also follows a recent announcement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office that prosecutors had charged D.C. police officer Enis Jevric with second-degree murder for shooting into a vehicle and killing An’Twan Gilmore in 2021. Officers were responding to a call of a person apparently sleeping or unconscious in a vehicle. Body-camera footage, although slightly obscured by Jevric’s shield, showed police tapping on the window. When the vehicle began moving slowly forward, Jevric fired into the vehicle 10 times, killing Gilmore.

While it’s a violation of MPD policy for officers to shoot at a moving vehicle — and one D.C. officer now faces a murder charge for it — in the high profile USPP killing of Bijan Ghaisar, the officers have not been prosecuted even after a years-long legal battle. Despite persistance by Ghaisar’s family, the Justice Department said last year it would not reopen the federal investigation into his killing. In 2017, Ghaisar, 25, was rear-ended on George Washington Parkway. After leaving the scene, two USPP offcers, Lucas Vinyard and Alejandro Amaya, pursued Ghaisar. He pulled over twice, but drove away when the officers approached his car with guns drawn. After pulling over a third time and beginning to drive away again, the officers fired multiple rounds into his car. He died days later.

This story has been updated with statements from attorneys with A. Clarke Law Group. 

Filed Under: alaunte scott, criminal justice, dalaneo martin, dc police, mpd, US park police,