On September 1, 2000, the life of 25-year-old Prince Carmen 'Rocky' Jones Jr., an African-American man, was cut short in a violent encounter with law enforcement. Jones, a student at Howard University and a personal trainer, was driving his Jeep Cherokee to meet his fiancée in Fairfax County, Virginia. He was unarmed at the time. For reasons that would later be described as a case of mistaken identity, he was followed for 15 miles by an undercover narcotics officer from the Prince George's County, Maryland, police department, Carlton Jones, who was in an unmarked vehicle and not in uniform.
The pursuit ended when the officer confronted Prince Jones. The officer, who was also Black, displayed his firearm and identified himself as police, though he did not show a badge. According to the officer's account, Jones then rammed his Jeep into the unmarked police vehicle. In response, the officer fired his weapon 16 times at Jones's vehicle, striking him six times, with five of the bullets entering his back. Two witnesses who testified at a later civil trial contradicted the officer's claim that Jones's vehicle was moving when the shots were fired. After being shot, Jones managed to drive a short distance before crashing near his fiancée's home. He was taken to Inova Fairfax Hospital, where he died from his gunshot wounds.
In the aftermath of the shooting, the Fairfax County Commonwealth's Attorney, Robert F. Horan Jr., declined to file criminal charges against Officer Carlton Jones. This decision was met with outrage from Prince Jones's family, friends, and civil rights leaders, who pointed to Prince George's County's history of police misconduct. The Fraternal Order of Police, however, supported the prosecutor's decision, stating that the officer was defending himself. The lack of criminal charges was seen by many as a failure of the justice system to hold police accountable.
Seeking another path for justice, Prince Jones's family filed a civil lawsuit. In January 2006, a Prince George's County Circuit Court jury found that the killing of Prince Jones was a wrongful death. The jury awarded his family $3.7 million in damages. After a judge adjusted the amount to be paid to his parents, the parties ultimately agreed to a settlement of $2.5 million for his young daughter. The tragic story of Prince Jones's death was later brought to a wider audience by his Howard University classmate, author Ta-Nehisi Coates, in his book 'Between the World and Me.'
