In the early morning hours of October 19, 2016, 18-year-old Allyssa Banks was fatally shot in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. A recent graduate of Largo High School, where she had served as student government president, Banks was a college student with aspirations of becoming an emergency medical technician. On the night of the incident, she and her boyfriend were parking a car across the street from her mother's home.
Banks had stepped out of the vehicle to help her boyfriend parallel park when they were approached.
The attack was believed to be a random act of violence stemming from an ongoing feud between two neighborhood crews. Authorities stated that Banks and her boyfriend were innocent victims who had no involvement in the feud. They were tragically in the wrong place at the wrong time. During the assault, Banks was shot multiple times and later died at a hospital. Her boyfriend was also shot but survived his injuries.
The investigation into the senseless murder continued for more than a year before authorities announced the arrests of three suspects in February 2018. Thomas Demetrius Jenkins, 20, Daniel Thomas Butler, 23, and Josue David Vasques, 21, were all charged with first-degree murder and other related offenses. According to court documents, the suspects were part of the 'Riverdale Crew' and were seeking retaliation against the rival 'Largo Crew'. It was alleged that Jenkins and Vasques approached the couple, and after asking where they were from, Vasques opened fire. Butler was identified as the driver of the getaway vehicle.
The legal proceedings that followed saw one of the suspects, Thomas Jenkins, plead guilty to a lesser charge of transporting a handgun in exchange for his testimony. However, the trial for the accused shooter, Josue Vasques, ended in an acquittal in December 2022. A jury found him not guilty on all counts, including murder and attempted murder. The defense had questioned the reliability of the eyewitness identification made by Banks's surviving boyfriend.
