Three men were trying to buy marijuana before they reportedly shot and killed a 20-year-old man last week in his home in Silver Spring, according to Montgomery County police.
Police announced Wednesday that three men have been arrested and charged with first-degree murder for the killing of Jon-Christian Kemachet-Webster, a 2015 alumnus of Albert Einstein High School in Kensington.
The shooting is the fourth high-profile homicide in the county in the past two months that police believe is linked to marijuana. On May 28, 24-year-old Sulaiman Jalloh of Bowie died after being beaten and stabbed in what was apparently a retaliation for a drug deal-turned robbery in downtown Silver Spring. On June 5, Shadi Adi Najjar, 17, and Artem S. Ziberov, 18, were gunned down in Montgomery Village days before their high school graduation allegedly because of a prior botched drug deal and robbery.
Police identified the arrested men as Re’Quan Kasim Hopson, 21, of South Kenmore Street in Arlington, Virginia; Oliver Waltz Farley, 19 of South Randolph Street in Arlington; and Brian Anthony Mackall, 20, of Suitland Road in Suitland.
Hopson, Farley and Mackall allegedly came to Kemachet-Webster’s Forest Glen home on the 1600 block of Belvedere Boulevard the night of July 19 to buy a large amount of marijuana, police said. Kemachet-Webster invited Farley and Mackall inside while Hopson waited in a car parked on the street.
Farley and Mackall went with Kemachet-Webster to his bedroom and shot him there, according to police. They then fled from the home, Mackall in the car Hopson was driving and Farley on foot and later in an Uber, according to police.
Another resident of the home called police at 9:51 p.m., reporting that someone had shot Kemachet-Webster. Responding officers found him suffering from a gunshot wound, and medics transported him to a local hospital. Kemachet-Webster died from his injuries there.
Arlington County police arrested Hopson on July 20 on unrelated charges, and Montgomery County detectives went to Virginia to interview him about the homicide, according to police. In the interview, Hopson admitted he drove Farley and Mackall to the house and drove Mackall back after the shooting.
Montgomery County police then obtained an arrest warrant for Hopson, who is in Arlington County Jail awaiting extradition to this county.
Farley was then arrested at his place of work in Northwest Washington, D.C., by District police the afternoon of July 20 and District police arrested Mackall on Tuesday. Both are being held in Washington until extradition.
Farley is scheduled to face a preliminary hearing on August 18 in the Montgomery County District Court in Rockville. Court information is not yet available for Hopson or Mackall.
