In the quiet city of Columbia, Maryland, a place often cited as one of the safest in the state, the life of 24-year-old Dylan Migel Perez was tragically cut short on the night of October 16, 2023. Perez, a Black/African American male, was fatally wounded in a triple shooting that shattered the community's sense of peace. The incident unfolded shortly before 10 p.m.
outside an Exxon gas station located on Foreland Garth, where police, responding to the sound of gunfire, discovered one man with gunshot wounds.
Shortly after the initial discovery, Perez and another wounded man arrived at Howard County General Hospital. Despite medical efforts, Dylan Migel Perez succumbed to his injuries. The two other victims of the shooting were treated for their injuries and survived. Investigators quickly determined that the shooting was not a random act of violence, but rather a targeted attack. In the immediate aftermath, no suspects were identified, prompting the Howard County Police Department to offer a reward for any information that could lead to an arrest. Perez's mother, overcome with grief, remembered her son as her best friend and a devoted father, brother, and uncle who was aspiring to earn a business degree from Morgan State University.
A significant breakthrough in the case came on November 2, 2023, when authorities announced the arrests of two suspects. Eighteen-year-old Shamond Isiah Steward and an unidentified 17-year-old male were taken into custody and charged with first- and second-degree murder, along with firearms offenses. The 17-year-old is being charged as an adult. The crucial piece of evidence that led to their capture was a 'ghost gun,' a privately made firearm without serial numbers, which was recovered during a separate investigation into an illegal firearms operation. This discovery linked the two teens to the fatal shooting of Dylan Migel Perez, bringing a measure of progress in a case that had deeply affected the Columbia community.
