Murder in Glover Park

At about 4:30 pm on Wednesday, February 11th shots rang out in Glover Park near the intersection of W Street and 41st Street at the southwest corner of the neighborhood. Around 15 police, secret service and EMS vehicles responded quickly to the scene as sirens blared and they sped through the narrow snow-lined streets.

They found a woman dead from gunshot wounds and a 12-year-old child who had been shot with non-life threatening injuries. A manhunt began immediately for 35-year-old Stephon Jeter, who was seen driving away in a pickup truck, which was also caught on camera.

The DC interim police Chief Jeffery Carroll reported these additional details in a press conference late last night: the woman was the mother of the child who was shot, and her 8-year old son saw the shooting. Jeter fled with the dead woman’s 3-year-old, Million Jeter. Two hours later Jeter’s truck was spotted in Prince George’s County where a pursuit led back to southeast DC in Anacostia. The truck crashed during the pursuit and then Jeter took his own life by shooting himself in the head. Luckily, he had dropped off the 3-year-old in PG County and the child is safe. The Chief explained that the 3-year-old was Jeter’s child, but the other two were not, and that their father was dead as well.

Jeter was arrested in 2018 for illegal firearms trafficking and the case was tried in federal court. The charges were: defrauding the USA, transportation of illegal firearms (a large number) across state lines, travel to another state to engage in firearms trafficking and unlawful possession. For weeks the lawyers on both sides argued over pre-trial detention of Jeter. The trial lasted about a year and ended with a plea deal and waiver of jury trial. In April 2019, Jeter was sentenced to 63 months in prison on two of the counts, to be served in the Federal corrections facility in Petersburg Virginia. In 2020 he filed a “motion for compassionate release” under the Cares Act, citing “extraordinary and compelling reasons” due to Covid risks. The federal court denied his request, citing the seriousness of the crime and that the guns he trafficked were used in multiple documented crimes including one homicide. Jeter proceeded to file four more motions for compassionate release over the next year, and each was denied.

After Jeter’s release in 2023, his attorneys made a motion for the early termination of the three-year post-release supervision, which the government opposed, but the judge approved in October 2023. Doing the math, considering the child he abducted was three, it seems he promptly had a baby with the now-deceased woman upon release (actually, that math does not work). The judge stated this “discretion can allow probation officers to devote their scarce resources to the supervision of higher risk offenders, while reducing the demands on those who are transitioning back into their communities, without compromising public safety.” Oops. Such decisions can have life or death consequences. Now three young children will grow up without a mother or a father.

Chris Jones