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‘You are shooting me!’ Alleged plan to rob dealer leaves rapper dead
Tierek Ty Jay Thomas, 20, of the District, left, and Samuel F. Brown, 20, of Hyattsville, are charged with first-degree murder and other counts in the Feb. 10 death of Waasi Harron Raheem Young, 20, a Washington rapper. (Montgomery County Police)
By Dan Morse
March 14 at 9:19 PM
The robbers, police say, had a plan: Lure a marijuana dealer to a dead-end street, surround his car and take his $1,000 worth of pot.
Things didn’t go as planned.
“You are shooting me!” one of the men yelled, just before he was killed by at least one of his alleged robbery associates, according to police accounts in Montgomery County District Court.
The accounts, along with a prosecutor’s summary of the case at a court hearing Friday, describe chaotic gunfire at 2 p.m. on Feb. 10 along Hawk Run Terrace, a community of townhouses in Montgomery Village.
Killed in the incident was Waasi Harron Raheem Young, 20, a Washington rapper who went by “YC” or “TrapFlavaCee,” according to court records.
The purported marijuana dealer also was shot but managed to flee — in a different car — and went to a hospital, according to court records. He is expected to survive.
Authorities have charged two men with felony murder, a charge brought under the legal argument that they killed someone — Young — while committing other felonies: the attempted robbery and attempted murder of the surviving reputed drug dealer, according to court records. Police identified the suspects as Samuel Fayomi Brown, 20, of Hyattsville, and Tierek Ty Jay Thomas, 20, of Washington.
It is unclear from court records whether Brown has retained an attorney. At the Friday hearing for Thomas, John Lavigne, a public defender representing him, questioned whether there was any direct evidence tying Thomas to the crime scene. Lavigne said Thomas was a high school graduate, had no previous criminal record, had been living in a hotel provided by a shelter agency, and was helping to raise a child. “His family ran into some hard times,” Lavigne said.
Thomas and Brown are being held in the Montgomery County jail on no-bond status.
For police, the case began on the afternoon of Feb. 10 when they received multiple 911 calls for a shooting. They arrived at Hawk Run Terrace to find Young’s body. They soon learned that a second man had shown up at a nearby hospital with gunshot wounds.
That man, authorities said, gave an account to detectives.
He said he was a drug dealer, detectives said, and had received a call requesting a delivery of marijuana along with a text with the address for the delivery.
After pulling up, detectives said in their account of his conversation, two men got in the alleged dealer’s car — one in front and one in back — as a silver Hyundai Sonata pulled in behind him, blocking his vehicle. Authorities say they were able to corroborate parts of his account with at least one witness, cellphone records and rental-car records.
“Shots are fired within the car,” Montgomery County Assistant State’s Attorney John Lalos said in court. “Subjects from the blocking vehicle, if you will, exit. . . . They were armed and they began shooting.”
It was at that point, police say, that Young called out that he was being shot at.
After the shooting stopped, the robbery crew ran off in different directions, police said. The man identified as the drug dealer, unable to drive his trapped car, made his way to the Hyundai, according to police.
“He fled the scene,” Lalos said, “essentially escaping what had been a drug rip — with him as the victim.”
Authorities contend that Brown was part of the pair who climbed in the alleged dealer’s car, getting in the front seat. They said Thomas was one of the men who emerged from the Hyundai and began shooting.
Police arrested Brown and Thomas on Thursday, and said that when they pulled over Thomas in a vehicle, he had a loaded .40-caliber handgun with him.
Jennifer Jenkins contributed to this report.