A man accused of gunning down a Kentucky teacher who was visiting D.C. for a seminar last summer has been indicted on first-degree murder charges.
Jaime Macedo, 22, fatally shot 25-year-old Maxwell Emerson on the campus of Catholic University in Northeast D.C. after following the teacher from a Metro station and attempting to rob him, prosecutors said.
Emerson, of Crestwood, Kentucky, was in D.C. to attend a seminar at the Library of Congress.
Macedo was arrested a week later and has been held at the D.C. Jail since then.
The indictment was filed in D.C. Superior Court on Wednesday.
In addition to first-degree felony murder charges, Macedo was indicted on several other counts, including attempting to commit a robbery while armed, possession of a firearm during a crime of violence and unlawful possession of a firearm, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office of D.C.
Emerson’s killing followed a strange early morning robbery attempt, on July 5, 2023, which was caught on surveillance cameras, prosecutors said. The encounter between the two men began when Emerson emerged from the Brookland-CUA Metro station at about 7:30 a.m. that morning and Macedo apparently asked for him money, according to court documents.
Cameras then captured Emerson walking with his hands raised in what court documents described as a “don’t shoot manner,” as Macedo followed him for the next 30 minutes, from the Metro station to a bench on the campus of the university.
Moments before he was shot, prosecutors said Emerson attempted to send a plea for help to a family member on Snapchat, alerting them that he was being robbed at gunpoint: “Help. Bring ribbed. At cub point.”
Emerson died of a gunshot wound to the abdomen.
Macedo was on probation in three different cases at the time of the shooting, including a violent crime and a gun possession case, according to court documents. When police searched a Northeast residence where Macedo was living at the time, they found a tampered GPS ankle monitor that had been “cut up,” according to documents.
Macedo is set to be arraigned Friday.
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