Do you know who murdered Alfonso Edward Thompson Jr in 2012? On February 6, 2012, late-night quiet in the New Carrollton area was broken by the kind of discovery that makes a neighborhood feel suddenly smaller and far less safe. Alfonso Edward Thompson Jr., 23, a Black male, was found down along the side of the road in West Lanham Hills, not far from homes and sidewalks that usually fade into darkness without notice.
The first people to see him weren’t passersby out for a stroll, but an ambulance unit from the West Lanham Hills Fire Department.
Around 11:32 p.m., the crew spotted a body in the 5000 block of 78th Avenue and alerted authorities. Patrol officers arrived and found Thompson suffering from what was described as an apparent gunshot wound, and he was pronounced dead at the scene. In one account, officials said he had been shot while riding his bike.
What made the night feel even more unsettling was that his death was not the only one. Another shooting had already drawn emergency crews to a separate location nearby, and reports described the two deaths as occurring within roughly 45 minutes of each other. In the 5300 block of 85th Avenue, 16-year-old Christopher Donald Smith was found shot near a pond and playground area, and investigators publicly considered whether the two killings might be connected, while stopping short of confirming any link. Neighbors near 78th Avenue described hearing arguing, screams, and a single gunshot before police arrived and found Thompson lying in the grass beside a home.
As homicide detectives moved in, the public picture remained spare: investigators said they were working to identify the suspect or suspects and establish a motive, and they asked anyone with information to contact the Prince George’s County Police Department’s Homicide Unit. In the official police release and the contemporaneous news coverage available, no arrests were announced, and no suspect was publicly named.
