Three young girls have been arrested and charged in connection with the death of a 64-year-old man in northwest Washington, D.C.
Metropolitan Police Department officers responded to the 6200 block of Georgia Avenue just before 1 a.m. on Oct. 17, 2023, for a report of a man down, according to a press release. Upon arrival, officers found Brown with trauma consistent with an assault. He died at the scene.
"He was just a quiet, nice, polite person. He didn’t bother anybody. That’s the type of person he was," a close family friend told FOX 5 DC. Local reports said Brown was physically handicapped.
The suspects, whose names are being withheld due to their age, are accused of beating to death the man, who police identified as Reggie Brown. Video played in court Friday showed the beating, local NBC4 reported. A medical examiner's autopsy revealed he died of blunt force trauma and the manner of death was ruled a homicide.
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On Thursday, a 13-year-old girl was arrested and charged with second-degree murder in connection with Brown's death. On Friday, a 13-year-old girl and a 12-year-old girl were also arrested and charged with second-degree murder.
A relative of the 12-year-old girl charged with killing Brown told FOX 5 the girl was shot Friday morning inside her apartment, which is about four blocks away from where Brown was murdered.
"She [is] going to come through. It’s just a lot going on right now," they said. "This happened around 3 in the morning. I ain’t even get no sleep."
The girl is expected to survive.
Metropolitan police say the case remains under investigation and the department is offering a reward of up to $25,000 for information. Anyone with information about this case is asked to call the police at 202-727-9099. Anonymous information may be submitted to the department’s text tip line by sending a text message to 50411.
All three suspects reportedly have long-standing truancy issues — one allegedly did not attend a single day of classes in 2024.
As early as this week, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser could propose a plan to hold parents in the district accountable if their children miss too many school days.
Some residents are hoping that addressing the district’s truancy issue could help reduce juvenile crime, which has skyrocketed. A report released by the Office of the State Superintendent of Education in November said that in the 2022-2023 school year, 60% of D.C. high school students were chronically absent, meaning they were absent either all day or part of the day at least 10% of school days.