On the evening of September 23, 2024, a burst of gunfire on the 3400 block of Rhode Island Avenue in Mount Rainier, Maryland, left 22-year-old Freiver Yanez-Salas of Washington, D.C., dead. He was found inside a burgundy Jeep Commander with fatal gunshot wounds. Two other occupants — a man and a woman — were also shot, taken to hospital with critical injuries and expected to survive.

Investigators say the shooting began during an attempted drug purchase. The victims told an approaching man they had no marijuana to sell, and the man then opened fire before fleeing. Detectives used surveillance footage to identify a suspect, and the surviving victims later identified the same man from a photo. Police say a search of the bedroom where the suspect, 39-year-old Louis Gregory of Brentwood, had been staying turned up ammunition matching casings from the scene.

Gregory was arrested and charged with first- and second-degree murder and other charges and is being held at the Department of Corrections without bond as proceedings continue. If anyone has information about Freiver Yanez-Salas or the shooting, please share what is known.