News report: Off-duty DC firefighter intentionally struck & killed armed man in Maryland
Click here to watch Paul Wagner’s story from WTTG-TV/FOX5
Prince George’s County police have identified an armed man who was struck and killed in the parking lot of an Upper Marlboro shopping center on Monday.
According to police, 21-year-old Nathaniel McKinnon was struck intentionally by the driver of the SUV on Brown Station Road at around 8:30 a.m. Detectives are now trying to determine if it was self-defense.
FOX 5 has the learned the driver in this incident is a D.C. firefighter and he is assigned at an engine company in Northwest D.C.
On the night before McKinnon was killed, he was allegedly involved in a dispute with the firefighter’s daughter. Police said guns were pulled in the incident and one man was arrested and charged with assault. For reasons still unclear, McKinnon was not arrested.
On the following morning on Monday, the firefighter and his daughter went back to the neighborhood where the assault occurred and spotted McKinnon getting into a car with his mother. They followed McKinnon and his mother, Sheraina Jones, for several miles while calling police. That is when they pulled into the strip mall off of Brown Station Road.
According to McKinnon’s mother, her son got out of the car to talk to the firefighter’s daughter. As he approached the car asking if she was okay and if everything was all right, he was run over.
“This man revs his car directly into my son’s body,” Jones described. “Instantly his body just goes limp and I’m looking in the rearview mirror. [I’m thinking] this is not real, this has got to be not real. This did not just happen. Then he drove back and then rolled over him and crushed his skull, his head, his nose was bleeding. I couldn’t even move. I was in a state of shock.”
McKinnon’s mother claimed the firefighter assaulted her.
“So I come over and he is standing over by the body and I said, ‘You did this to my baby. You did this’ … I do not know him. He begins to fight me, you understand? He has bruised up my body, beating me up on the floor. He threw me on the ground scraping my face up. His daughter is standing there watching this whole episode.”
Prince George’s County police said officers recovered an assault weapon from McKinnon.
“I did not see a weapon and that is the honest to God truth,” Jones said. “My son, when he was on that ground, I did not see any weapons there. I didn’t see anything. Then all of a sudden, there was a clip that was there and I’m like, ‘Where did this come from? Who put this here?’ … That was the thought on my mind. This guy is screaming, ‘He’s got a gun. He’s got a gun.’ Well, first of all, he’s dead on the ground.”
Police said detectives are consulting with the State’s Attorney’s Office on any potential charges in this case.
Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call the Prince George’s County Police Department’s Homicide Unit at 301-772-4925. Callers wishing to remain anonymous may call CRIME SOLVERS at 1-866-411-TIPS (8477), text “PGPD plus your message” to CRIMES (274637) on your cell phone or go to www.pgcrimesolvers.com and submit a tip online.
