On September 1, 2000, 25-year-old Prince Carmen Rocky Jones Jr., a Howard University student and personal trainer, was shot and killed after an encounter with an undercover Prince George’s County, Maryland, narcotics officer, Carlton Jones. Prince Jones was unarmed and driving his Jeep Cherokee to meet his fiancée in Fairfax County, Virginia, when he was followed for about 15 miles by the plainclothes officer in an unmarked vehicle. The officer identified himself as police but did not display a badge.

According to the officer, Prince Jones rammed the unmarked car and the officer fired 16 times, striking him six times; five of the bullets entered his back. Two witnesses who later testified in a civil trial said the vehicle was not moving when the shots were fired. Prince Jones drove a short distance after being shot, crashed near his fiancée’s home, and died at Inova Fairfax Hospital.

The Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney declined to file criminal charges, a decision that drew outrage from Jones’s family and civil rights leaders and support from the Fraternal Order of Police. The family pursued a civil suit; in January 2006 a jury found the death wrongful and awarded $3.7 million, later adjusted and settled for $2.5 million for his daughter. Does anyone have memories of Prince Jones or information about the 2000 pursuit?