Landscaper Killed in DC Road Rage Shooting Linked to Leaf Blower

A man working as a landscaper was shot and killed in Northeast D.C. on Saturday in what police say was an act of road rage. His widow said he was killed after a driver was angered that a leaf blower blew grass clippings onto his car. 

Jason Ford, of Northwest D.C., was the victim. He was 45 and was the father of two adult children. 

The killing was over, “somebody blowing grass and him apologizing. We will no longer have him here because of that. Makes no sense,” Ford’s wife, Tonya Ford, said. 

Ford had worked as a landscaper for years. 

Police say Ford was sitting in a landscaping truck in the 1700 block of West Virginia Avenue NE, off Corcoran Street, when he was shot by someone on a scooter. 

Ford was supervising a crew doing yardwork in the Trinidad area when grass clippings landed on a shiny, black car parked nearby, his wife said. 

The driver was angry. Ford apologized, she said. A man who appeared to be a friend of the driver rode up on a rental scooter, and he and the driver spoke. 

The landscaping crew left and was stopped at a light on West Virginia Avenue. That’s when the man on the scooter reappeared and opened fire, hitting Ford in the chest, his wife said. 

Officers responded at about 4:45 p.m. Medics then found Ford dead at the scene.

“This was not necessary. It did not have to happen like this. He apologized. We could have just moved on without this,” Ford’s heartbroken wife said. 

Speaking to reporters on Monday afternoon, D.C. Chief of Police Robert Contee spoke about the case and too many instances of gun violence.

“The guy shot … the driver of the landscaping truck because there was a gun introduced into the situation,” he said. “That just blows my mind, the fact that we are, in our communities — we’re seeing so many firearms.”

No information on a potential suspect was released. Anyone with potentially relevant information is asked to contact the department.