Suspect Arrested in Fatal Stabbing of 15-Year-Old Boy at Deanwood Metro Station

Mom of Teen Stabbing Victim Recalls Final Moments

What to Know

  • Victim believed to be 15 years old.
  • Appears to be result of a fight between two teens as they left the station.
  • Two weeks ago, a 15-year-old boy was fatally shot at the same station.

Police made an arrest late Monday night in the stabbing death of a 15-year-old boy inside the Deanwood Metro station, according to News4's Shomari Stone.

The suspect's name has not been released. Details about the arrest are expected to be announced on Tuesday.

John Rufus Evans III returned to Washington, D.C., from his home in Richmond, Virginia, for a court appearance after which he was stabbed after he passed through the fare gate and headed toward an escalator, News4's Pat Collins reported. He was rushed to a hospital, where he died, D.C. police said.  

Evans' death comes less than three weeks after another boy was fatally shot on the station's platform, police said. 

Police are searching for a person of interest in connection with the stabbing. They believe he is a 14- to 20-year-old black male with a medium complexion, medium build, dreadlocks and braces.

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"The lookout that we have right now is for a male that looks like they're also in their teens, maybe early 20s, with twists in their hair, wearing a black puffy jacket, black jeans and black shoes," Assistant Chief Peter Newsham said. 

Evans' mom, Terogie Wells, told Stone she last spoke to her son on Monday morning. She said she and Evans moved to Richmond to get him away from their northeast D.C. neighborhood.

"I was sick, and I couldn't take him to his appointment," Wells said. "He came up, hugged and kissed me, and said he'd be back. I just wish I would have went with him this morning."

"It's hard for any parent to go though something like that. He just took a part of me that I can't get back," she said. "It's too many children, black kids, losing their lives for dumb stuff, and they really need to wake up and realize life is too short."

The victim attended Richard Wright Public Charter School last year but was not a student there this year, the principal said.

"[That] two of these things happen within a month of each other is just beyond insane," Deanwood resident Paul Kent said.

Neighbors said no police were around when Evans was attacked.

Ward 7 Council member Yvette Alexander said she was at the station earlier Monday morning to meet consituents and saw no police presence then, either.

"The Metro police really should have more increased presence here," she said. "They said after the first tragic incident that they would, and I was actually out here this morning and I didn't see any additional presence."

Two weeks ago, 15-year-old Davonte Washington was fatally shot on the station's platform after a 17-year-old approached him and asked why he was looking at him, witnesses told police. Washington was headed to get a haircut for Easter with his mother and sisters.

"You've got to think about it," a neighbor said. "This station is in between two different neighborhoods. You've got Kennilworth Avenue here, you've got these people over here, and then you have the Maryland side over there. Not everybody gets along."

"It used to be people solved problems with their fists," said former Mayor Vincent Gray, who is running for the Ward 7 seat on the D.C. Council. "Now that seems to be passe now. Now it seems to be either a knife or a gun, and the consequences are absolutely deadly." 

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