A suspect wanted in the killing of a 20-year-old man inside the Mall at Prince George's food court has been arrested more than a month after the shooting, police say.
Stephon Edward Jones, 33, was charged with first- and second-degree murder and related charges in the shooting death of Darrion Herring, of Hyattsville, Maryland.
Herring's family said he was at the mall on Aug. 18 assisting a man with disabilities. According to a family member who asked not to be identified, Herring took his client to a restroom near the food court when one of the two men already in the restroom unleashed an unprovoked torrent of anger and profanity.
He yelled, “What are you looking at?” and threatened to harm Herring. Then, he called his family member to tell her what happened.
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“He doesn’t bother anyone. He doesn’t mess with anyone, and he just doesn’t understand why someone wanted to pick with him,” his relative previously told News4.
She also said Herring was very disheartened at the reaction of the other man in the restroom, who he described as a uniformed officer with the Prince George’s County Police Department.
“The officer didn’t say anything and there was no intervention,” his relative said. “That was a source of frustration where he said, ‘What kind of world do we live in that an officer is present when this man makes a threat to shoot me?’”
Minutes later, after helping his client board a transit vehicle, Herring was shot and killed in the food court area of the mall.
D.C. police arrested Jones, who is from D.C., and he remains in jail there pending extradition to Prince George's County, Maryland, police said.
Herring’s relative said he planned to apply to the D.C. fire department when he turned 21, even more reflective of his desire to help people.
She added that it pains her to hear authorities describe what led to the murder as “a dispute,” implying Herring knew Jones and was fighting with him over something.
“This was such a random act and we would like to seek and get justice for Darrion,” she said.
News4 asked Prince George’s County police for comment on the allegations about the inaction of the officer in the restroom. They said there would be no response due to the open murder investigation.
Police are asking anyone with information on the case to call detectives at 301-516-2512.
