Jamillah Gales’ 2-year-old son was found unharmed after an Amber Alert tied to the homicide.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Jamillah Gales was remembered by family as a devoted mother after police said the 25-year-old was shot to death in a Northwest Washington alley and her 2-year-old son was found unharmed nearby.
The homicide has led to a first-degree murder while armed charge against Hakeem Jones, 28, who was ordered held without bond after a D.C. Superior Court hearing. Police say Gales was killed late April 21 in the 600 block of Kenyon Street NW. Prosecutors say video evidence, witness statements and items found near Jones helped support the charge. The family account has added the human cost of the case, describing a young woman whose sudden death left her child without his mother.
A fundraiser organized by Gales’ cousin, Tahmia Farmer, said Gales’ son was “truly her world” and that relatives were devastated by her killing. Farmer wrote that she grew up with Gales and viewed her as more like a sister. The fundraiser said the family learned Gales had been shot multiple times in a D.C. alley and that the shock of losing her in such a violent way was overwhelming. By the days after the shooting, the page had drawn 49 donations and raised more than $3,000 toward a $10,000 goal for funeral costs and support for the child. The statement did not mirror the police timeline. It reflected what relatives were facing while detectives and prosecutors built the case.
Police said the official timeline began at 10:52 p.m. April 21, when Fourth District officers were sent to the 600 block of Kenyon Street NW for a reported shooting. Gales was found in a rear alley, unconscious and not breathing, with apparent gunshot wounds. D.C. Fire and EMS personnel responded, but she was pronounced dead at the scene. Detectives determined that she had been with her 2-year-old child shortly before the shooting. The child was not immediately accounted for, prompting police to issue an Amber Alert early April 22. The alert was canceled after the boy was found unharmed shortly before 11 a.m. in a residence near the homicide location.
The residence where the child was found became a key part of the investigation. Police said Jones and another adult man were inside when officers located the boy. Investigators later determined the second man was not involved in the offense. Court records described the man as a witness who told police Gales and Jones had left an apartment to go to the store and asked him to watch the child. The witness said Jones came back about an hour later without Gales and that he was told Gales had gone to a different store. That statement put Jones with Gales before she died and placed him back at the apartment afterward, while the child remained there.
Prosecutors said nearby video helped fill in the gap between those two points. The footage showed Gales and the suspect entering the alley, according to charging records discussed in court. Prosecutors said it appeared the two argued before the shooting. The records said the suspect took a shooting stance with arms outstretched in Gales’ direction, pointing what appeared to be a firearm with a flashlight attached. Police said Gales was shot twice in the back. The defense has disputed the identification, arguing that the video showed a person in a black ski mask and did not establish that the person was Jones. Jones’ attorney also argued that items found in the apartment were not connected to him.
Investigators said clothing and a black bag found in the apartment were similar to items seen on the person in security footage. Prosecutors also said the person on video matched Jones by height and weight. Those details were enough for a judge to find probable cause, but they remain early-stage claims in a case that has not gone to trial. Police have not released the full video to the public, and they have not announced a motive. Interim Police Chief Jeffery Carroll said investigators were still trying to determine the relationship between Jones and Gales. Authorities also said Jones was not the father of Gales’ 2-year-old child. The available records do not say whether Gales and Jones knew each other long before the night of the shooting.
The charges changed after the arrest. The Metropolitan Police Department first announced that Jones had been charged with second-degree murder while armed in Gales’ death. At the Thursday court hearing, prosecutors said the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia had filed a first-degree murder while armed charge. Jones was ordered held without bond. Prosecutors also told the court that Jones had two prior convictions for unlawfully carrying a firearm and was on parole for one of them. They said he had been released from jail March 6. The prosecution cited those details while arguing that Jones should remain detained pending further court action.
The public facts of the case have come from several overlapping sources: a police release, court records, hearing statements and family comments. Together, they describe a short path from an apartment to an alley, followed by a search for a toddler and the arrest of a man found near where the boy was recovered. They do not yet explain why Gales was shot. They do not say what, if anything, was said in the alley before gunfire. They also do not say whether investigators found the weapon described in court records as appearing to have a flashlight attached. The defense has signaled that identity and the meaning of the recovered items will be central issues.
For Gales’ relatives, the next steps in court will unfold as they plan a funeral and care for the child she left behind. Farmer’s fundraiser called the loss sudden and tragic and described the family as trying to support the boy as he grows up without his mother. The case file identifies Gales as being of no fixed address, a detail that appears in the police release but does not capture the family’s portrait of her. In the public record, she is both the victim in a homicide case and the mother whose missing child triggered a citywide alert.
For now, Jones’ next court appearance is scheduled for May 6. He remains held without bond, and investigators have not publicly announced a motive in the Kenyon Street killing.
Author note: Last updated May 19, 2026.