In the Washington Highlands neighborhood of Washington, D.C., on the morning of December 7, 2020, a report of a person down on the 400 block of Xenia Street, Southeast, brought officers from the Seventh District to a grim discovery. There they found 30-year-old Anthony Orr, a male of no fixed address, suffering from a gunshot wound. Emergency services rushed him to a nearby hospital, but his injuries proved fatal, and he was pronounced dead.
The investigation into the death of Anthony
Orr initially led police to seek a vehicle of interest, described as a possible 2020 Kia K5 with a missing passenger side window. The case progressed, and in January 2021, homicide detectives arrested 28-year-old Dennis Chase of Northeast, D.C. He was subsequently charged with second-degree murder while armed. The relationship between the two men was revealed to be one of childhood friends who had recently reconnected in the months leading up to the fatal incident.
According to the evidence presented by the government, Chase was driving with Orr in the passenger seat through the Washington Highlands area. As they traveled down Xenia Street, Chase raised a gun and shot Orr in the head. He then pushed Orr's body out of the vehicle and fled the scene. In an attempt to conceal his crime, Chase drove approximately 30 miles to Severn, Maryland, where he tried to set the car ablaze with diesel fuel in a wooded area. He then hid his clothes in a shed at a nearby home and knocked on the back door to ask for help, at which point the homeowner called 911. Chase was initially arrested on an unrelated warrant before homicide detectives charged him with Orr's murder.
During his trial, Dennis Chase claimed he acted in self-defense. His testimony alleged that he and Orr were involved in distributing drugs together and that a dispute arose after Orr stole drugs and a gun. Chase stated that Orr, paranoid that a bounty had been placed on his head, threatened him with a gun, leading to a struggle in which the weapon discharged accidentally, killing Orr. The prosecution, however, argued that the act was a premeditated, execution-style shooting. The jury ultimately rejected the self-defense claim, and in October 2024, found Dennis Chase guilty of first-degree murder while armed. In July 2025, he was sentenced to 35 years in prison for the murder of his childhood friend.
