A man killed with an AR-15 at a D.C. bus stop Tuesday morning had been a standout basketball player in high school and college. Friends and family mourned 27-year-old Tyvez Monroe at a vigil Saturday evening in Alexandria, Virginia.
Monroe was sitting at a bus stop outside the L’Enfant Plaza Metro station in Southwest D.C. when 36-year-old Deonte Spicer of Northwest D.C. approached him with an unleashed dog before 4:30 a.m. They exchanged fist bumps and talked for a few minutes before Spicer unzipped his jacket and pulled out an AR-15.
Monroe spread out his arms before Spicer fired, killing Monroe and shattering the bus stop’s glass shelter.
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Spicer then boarded a bus with the dog a block away, then asked to be let out where Monroe was shot.
Rickey Cruse and his wife raised their grandson since he was three days old.
“Never was a confrontation,” he said. “Never got in no fights. Nothing like that. He always tried to diffuse something if it happened.”
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Their living room is a shrine to Monroe. His sports trophies crowd a shelf. The walls are covered in awards, MVP plaques and pictures of the young man whose games they faithfully attended.
“He was liked by a lot of people, you know,” his father, Darryl Monroe, said at Saturday’s vigil. “He was a good-hearted guy. He was into sports, basketball, community.”
A 1,000-point career at Thomas Edison High School earned Monroe a basketball scholarship to Augusta University in Georgia, where he also had a 1,000-point career.
He returned to Virginia after graduation and recently moved into an apartment in Arlington, Cruse said. He always called his grandparents to see if they needed anything.
“He was calling us and asking how we were doing, do we need anything, do we need [him] to come by and help us,” Cruse said.
Monroe’s former college coach posted on X, formerly Twitter, “One of the most competitive players I’ve ever coached, gone far too soon.”
“We don’t question God; we don’t even try to understand what’s happening,” Monroe’s father said. “We just hope and pray that He makes us safe and sound through this struggle.”
Police have not released a motive for the shooting, but court documents note bizarre behavior by Spicer. Police indicated his mental status is being explored.
“Without that being done, we can’t speak to his mental capacity at the time or whether they knew or didn’t know each other,” D.C. police inspector Kevin Kentish said.
Spicer was charged with first-degree murder. He is in custody pending his next court appearance.
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