A 12-year-old and two 13-year-olds are facing second-degree murder charges in the death of 64-year-old Reggie Brown
Three young girls have been charged with murder in the death of a 64-year-old disabled man in Washington, D.C.
On Thursday, a 13-year-old girl was arrested and charged with second-degree murder, and on Friday, two more girls, ages 12 and 13, were both arrested and charged with second-degree murder, the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) said in a statement on Friday.
Two judges dismissed a first-degree murder charge in the case, citing a lack of evidence, according to The Washington Post, which was present at the hearings.
The three girls allegedly assaulted 64-year-old Reggie Brown on Oct. 17, 2023, MPD said in its statement. When officers responded to the incident, Brown was pronounced dead at the scene, and an autopsy performed by the Chief Medical Examiner later showed he had sustained blunt-force trauma consistent with a homicide.
During a hearing in D.C. Superior Court on Friday, investigators played a video allegedly taken by the girls of the incident. According to The Washington Post, the one-minute-long clip showed five girls chasing Brown into an alley in the Northwest neighborhood of the city, pulling him down off a chain-link fence he was attempting to climb, and stomping on his head.
They then proceeded to pull down his pants, take his belt and hit him with it, The Washington Post reported. One of the girls in the video could be heard cheering, “He’s leaking,” referring to Brown’s head bleeding, the newspaper added.
One detective called the clip “horrific” in court, according to NBC Washington.
During the two-day-long court proceedings, homicide detective Harry Singleton testified that Brown was disabled, per The Washington Post. He had mental health issues, had two fingers on each hand and had a metal plate in his head, Singleton said.
Investigators also played security footage of an adult man, who looked to be in his early 20s, grabbing Brown by his collar and throwing him against a wall, The Washington Post reported.
Singleton also testified that the group of girls — who had no relation to Brown — were passing by and witnessed the incident, NBC reported. According to The Washington Post, the detective interviewed a witness who alleged that one of the girls walked up to the man assaulting Brown and asked, “Can I fight him?” referring to Brown, to which the man responded, “Yes.”
One of the girls who was interviewed by investigators alleged that two girls in the group of five did not want to fight Brown, but the man threatened to shoot them with a gun he had in the waistband of his pants, per The Washington Post.
The three girls, who have not been identified publicly by law enforcement due to their age, have been charged as juveniles and have pleaded not guilty, The Washington Post reported.
The 12-year-old involved in the case is now on crutches after being shot on Friday morning before being arrested, the outlet added. According to NBC Washington, law enforcement said she was shot and wounded in her home less than a mile away from the location where Brown was assaulted. She had been hit in the leg and was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, the affiliate station reported.
No other details were released about the shooting incident, according to The Washington Post.
All three girls are being held in the D.C. Youth Services Center and are expected back in court this week, The Washington Post learned during the hearing.
“My uncle really didn’t deserve this,” Brown’s niece told NBC Washington in a statement. “He was known in this community for years, so for this to happen where he lived for 64 [years] is insane. They have to be held accountable.”
