A D.C. high school administrator shot last month told police that he believes he was targeted by a man he knows from his old neighborhood in Barry Farm and who he alleged killed his brother in 2007.
When an officer asked Grandson, the dean of students for Ballou STAY in Southeast Washington, who had shot him and why, he uttered a first and last name and said, “He killed my brother,” according to an arrest affidavit filed Monday in D.C. Superior Court.
Grandson’s brother, Jermaine M. Holliway, 30, who had attended Howard University, was fatally shot in June 2007 outside his apartment in Barry Farm, a high-crime neighborhood in Southeast. Grandson did not respond to calls seeking comment, and court papers did not elaborate on why he believes the suspect in his shooting was involved in his brother’s death.
No arrest has been made in Holliway’s killing, and D.C. police would not comment on whether the person arrested in Grandson’s shooting was ever a suspect in that case. That suspect was 14 at the time. D.C. police spokesman Dustin Sternbeck said detectives are aware of Grandson’s statement. “If that’s a credible source of information, we are going to investigate further,” Sternbeck said.
The suspect in the January incident, Justin Headspeth, 23, of Southeast has been charged with two counts of assault with intent to kill in connection with the shootings of Grandson and his companion, Eugenia Young, 37, principal of Roosevelt STAY, an alternative high school in Northwest.
A D.C. Superior Court Judge ordered Headspeth detained until a hearing Feb. 18. His attorney, Kevin Mosley, asked why Grandson waited to voice his suspicions. “If he had this information prior to being shot, why didn’t he tell this to the police before?” Mosley said in an interview. “It looks suspicious, as if they are trying to point the finger at an obvious suspect.”
Mosley said Headspeth “maintains his innocence” in both cases and said his office plans to investigate the allegations.
The arrest affidavit provides new details in the January shootings, which occurred about 7:15 p.m. in the 1500 block of Eaton Road SE. Headspeth grew up in Barry Farm. Grandson told police that he lived in Barry Farm from 1992 to 2007.
Grandson told police that he was on Eaton Road to give money to his goddaughter. Police said Grandson’s car became stuck in the snow. Police said Young got out of the car to clear snow from around the tires when Grandson saw a man he identified as Headspeth shooting at them. Young suffered a gunshot wound to her stomach; police said they think 11 shots were fired.
Emma Brown contributed to this report.
