On a Thursday evening in March 2015, 64-year-old Santos Rafael Zelaya was in his home in the Alexandria section of Fairfax County, Virginia, when his life was brought to a violent and abrupt end. Three men, armed with guns, forced their way into the residence on North Kings Highway. While one of the intruders held Zelaya's roommate at gunpoint, the other two began to search the house. It was during this home invasion that Zelaya, in an act of bravery, confronted the assailants with a machete, managing to injure one of them. This act of defiance was met with gunfire, and Zelaya was shot multiple times.
The intruders fled the scene, leaving Zelaya gravely wounded. Despite being airlifted to a local hospital, he succumbed to his injuries. The investigation into the shooting, which authorities did not believe was a random act, soon led to the identification of four suspects. Over the following months, a series of arrests were made. Gregory Brown, then 23, of Washington, D.C., and Niziah Williams, 24, of Clinton, Maryland, were the first to be apprehended and were charged with murder.
The investigation continued, and in March of the following year, two more suspects were taken into custody. Timothy Lamont Washington, 20, of Alexandria, was arrested and also charged with murder. Shortly after, the fourth and final suspect, 23-year-old Eric Howard Buckner, also from Alexandria, was arrested and charged with second-degree murder. The apprehension of Buckner brought a close to the search for those directly involved in the tragic death of Santos Rafael Zelaya. The collective actions of these four individuals brought a violent end to a man's life in the place he should have been safest.
