Dontae John Cook was 16 and a junior at Northwestern High School when he was shot and killed in the hallway of an apartment building in the 4600 block of 25th Street in Mount Rainier, Maryland, on the evening of Friday, December 16, 2011. Known as likable and easy-going, he took advanced courses and played football for the Hyattsville/Mount Rainier/Brentwood Boys and Girls Club, where he earned an Unsung Hero award.

Mount Rainier patrol officers arrived after a shooting report at about 7:36 p.m. Dontae, who lived on Upshur Street and was about a half-mile from home, was found with a gunshot wound and was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead shortly after. The Prince George’s County Police Homicide Unit opened an investigation and identified a suspect.

On December 17, 2011, police arrested 24-year-old Eric Jerome Brown of Washington, D.C., with assistance from the Metropolitan Police Department and the United States Secret Service; he was charged with first-degree murder and held at the D.C. Jail pending extradition to Prince George’s County. Does anyone have information about Dontae’s final evening or the apartment building on 25th Street?