Third suspect charged in D.C. trans murder

D.C. police on Wednesday night announced they have arrested a third suspect in the July 4 fatal shooting of 22-year-old transgender woman Deeniquia “Dee Dee” Dodds on a street near her home in Northeast Washington.

In the same announcement police released a photo of a fourth suspect in the Dodds murder who remains at large and who police said should be considered armed and dangerous.

The latest developments in the Dodds murder case came five months after D.C. police arrested the first two suspects in the case, Jalonte Little, 26, of Southeast D.C., and Shareem Hall, 22, of District Heights, Md., on a charge of first-degree felony murder while armed.

In the announcement on Wednesday, Feb. 8, police said they arrested Montee Tyree Johnson, 21, of Southeast D.C. on a charge of first-degree murder while armed in connection with the Dodds case.

The announcement says police have also obtained a D.C. Superior Court arrest warrant for a fourth suspect in the case identified as Cyheme Hall, 21. Hall is described as a black male, 5 feet, five inches tall, weighing 120 pounds and having brown eyes, a medium complexion and black hair.

The arrest warrant charges him with first-degree murder while armed-felony murder, police said.

“Hall should be considered armed and dangerous,” the announcement says.

Police didn’t say in their announcement on Wednesday whether Shareem Hall and Cyheme Hall are related.

At the time of Shareem Hall’s arrest in September police filed a 13-page affidavit in Superior Court in support of his arrest. The affidavit disclosed that Shareem Hall, Little and at least two other suspects were implicated in a series of armed street robberies against eight transgender women, including Dodds, in two different locations in the early morning hours of July 4.

The other two suspects weren’t identified at that time but are now believed to be Johnson and Cyheme Hall.

The arrest affidavit in September said three of the trans women targeted by the suspects on July 4 were robbed at 4th and K streets, N.E. about 3:40 a.m. by three male suspects brandishing pistols, according to accounts by witnesses.

Several of the victims and witnesses told police they saw some of the suspects leave and enter a white Pontiac vehicle that belonged to Little. Police later that day stopped and arrested Little while inside the vehicle for an unrelated robbery of a transgender woman that occurred in June.

An important break in the Dodds murder case came about when police discovered Little was wearing a GPS monitoring device on his ankle that was placed there in connection with yet another unrelated criminal case.

When homicide detectives tracked the data from his monitoring device they discovered Little was at the location where witnesses said Dodds was shot shortly before 3 a.m. on the 200 block of Division Ave., N.E.

By also tracking Little’s cell phone records investigators were able to place Shareem Hall at the location where Dodds was shot. The affidavit says this and other leads obtained by detectives enabled them to charge Little and Shareem Hall with Dodds’ murder last September.

Charging documents showing how investigators linked Johnson and Cyheme Hall to the Dodds murder couldn’t immediately be obtained.

More in Nation

See More