On the evening of April 17, 2021, 13-year-old King Douglas was shot and killed at a shopping center on Ritchie Station Court in Capitol Heights, Maryland. He had been with friends outside Dave & Buster’s when a dispute between two groups of juveniles turned violent; another 13-year-old was stabbed but survived with non-life-threatening injuries.

A 12-year-old boy from Washington, D.C., later turned himself in with his mother and confessed, saying a friend had handed him the gun. He was charged as a juvenile with first-degree murder. The sentence handed down in August 2022 placed the then 14-year-old on indefinite supervised probation with GPS monitoring, counseling, and anger management rather than juvenile incarceration. Prosecutors later extended probation after discovering online posts, and the court ended probation in September 2025, noting the teen’s progress in school and services.

King’s mother, Ja’Ka McKnight, has since advocated against youth violence and established a foundation in his name, and the community named a street King Douglas Way in the Ritchie Station Complex.