Alexandria man's death ruled homicide 6 months later

Police recently announced an Alexandria, Virginia, man’s death in January was ruled a homicide.

Maurio Bailey suffered a traumatic brain injury during a confrontation in his apartment in the 5400 block of N. Morgan Street Nov. 28.

Bailey had emergency surgery but never regained consciousness.

His mother, Juliet Bailey, said she was by his side every day for more than a month, praying and singing praise songs. On Jan. 2, she woke up in the middle of the night.

“I said, ‘Maurio … Mom was here when you took your first breath,’” she said. “I said, ‘When you leave or whenever it’s your time … Mom will be right by your side.’”

He died a few hours later, but Alexandria police did not announce his death had been ruled a homicide from blunt force trauma until six months later.

“When I first got the death certificate, it only said ‘pending’ on there, because they couldn’t say homicide until they did all this thorough investigation and autopsy,” his mother said.

She said she’s confident investigators were always working the case. 

“If you rush to do something and haven’t gathered all the information together, that would be another problem,” she said. 

The family now hopes anyone who may have seen or heard something at the Woodmont Apartments Nov. 28 will share information with police.

“Maurio cannot be brought back, but just knowing that justice is taking place and that someone has been caught for basically killing my son, our son, I don’t know what to except we just want justice for this,” Juliet Bailey said.

News4 reached out to Alexandria police about the case but has not received a reply.

The family has set up a fundraiser to help with funeral expenses.