Do you know who killed Semaj Alsobrooks in 2019? In the late hours of a Wednesday evening, the sounds of gunfire echoed through the 3900 block of East Capitol Street, Northeast in Washington, D.C., forever altering the course of many lives. It was September 4, 2019, when 22-year-old Semaj Alsobrooks, an African-American male, was fatally shot. Just before midnight, officers from the Sixth District responded to reports of a shooting and discovered Alsobrooks unconscious at the scene.
He was suffering from a gunshot wound and was immediately transported to a local hospital. Despite all lifesaving efforts, he was pronounced dead.
Another adult male was also found at the location with a gunshot wound. His injuries were determined to be non-life-threatening, and he received treatment at a hospital. As detectives from the Metropolitan Police Department's Homicide Branch began their investigation into the fatal shooting, they sought help from the public to piece together the events of that night. Investigators learned that a suspect was seen in a small, dark-colored car, possibly grey, that was last spotted traveling north in the unit block of Burns Street, Northeast, shortly after the incident. A reward of up to $25,000 was offered for any information that would lead to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for this homicide.
Nearly two months after the tragic event, a breakthrough was made in the case. On November 4, 2019, members of the Capital Area Regional Fugitive Task Force located and arrested a suspect. Twenty-two-year-old Tyrell Powell, of Southeast, D.C., was taken into custody based on a D.C. Superior Court arrest warrant. He was subsequently charged with first-degree murder while armed for his alleged involvement in the death of Semaj Alsobrooks. The legal proceedings that followed faced significant delays, attributed in part to the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, which impacted the scheduling of a trial.
