In the early hours of March 4, 2011, a dispute inside the Surf Club in Edmonston, Maryland, spilled out into the parking lot, ending in the tragic death of 30-year-old Phillip Jared Watson. Watson, a resident of Washington, D.C., was found suffering from multiple gunshot wounds and was rushed to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead shortly after his arrival.
The investigation into the shooting led Prince George's County Police to identify two suspects: 24-year-old Frederick
Scott of Hyattsville and 24-year-old Malik Jamar Huff, also of Hyattsville. Authorities determined that an altercation between the victim and the suspects inside the nightclub preceded the fatal shooting. In May 2011, both men were apprehended; Huff was arrested in Prince George's County, while Scott was located and arrested in Las Vegas, Nevada, to await extradition.
The legal proceedings against the two men took an unexpected turn in November 2011 when Frederick Scott was mistakenly released from custody due to a clerical error. A bench warrant was issued, and he was rearrested later that month after voluntarily appearing at a bond hearing. He was subsequently held on a $500,000 bond.
Ultimately, the murder charges against both Frederick Scott and Malik Jamar Huff were dropped. Prosecutors stated that after a thorough investigation, they could not definitively prove who was responsible for the shooting. As a result, no one has been convicted for the murder of Phillip Jared Watson. Malik Huff did, however, plead guilty to a first-degree assault charge stemming from the fight that occurred inside the club before the shooting. In a plea agreement, he was sentenced to five years in prison. With the resolution of Huff's assault charge and the dismissal of the murder charges, authorities considered the case concluded.
