Police said a neighborhood canvass led officers to a residence near Kenyon Street, where the missing child was recovered.
WASHINGTON — A homicide investigation in Northwest Washington turned into an urgent missing-child search overnight after police said a 25-year-old mother was fatally shot and her 2-year-old son disappeared, only to be found safe hours later in a nearby residence with the suspected gunman.
Authorities identified the woman as Jamillah Gales and the child as Royce Hawkins. The case drew intense attention because police did not immediately know the victim’s identity when they found her Tuesday night, delaying the moment when detectives realized a toddler who had been with her before the shooting was missing. Once that became clear, officers issued an Amber Alert, canvassed the neighborhood and found the boy Wednesday morning. A suspect was then arrested and charged with second-degree murder, police said.
The investigation began at about 10:52 p.m. Tuesday, when Fourth District officers were sent to the 600 block of Kenyon Street NW for a reported shooting. According to the Metropolitan Police Department, officers arrived to find a woman in a rear alley, unconscious and not breathing, with apparent gunshot wounds. Fire and EMS crews responded, but Gales was pronounced dead at the scene. Police later said Gales, 25, had no fixed address. The missing-child dimension of the case did not emerge right away. Interim Police Chief Jeffery Carroll said officers first had to determine who the victim was. By the time investigators learned she was the mother of a 2-year-old boy who could not be located, several hours had already passed. That gap added pressure to the search, turning the case from a late-night homicide into a fast-moving effort to track down a vulnerable child before more harm could come to him.
Police said detectives established that Royce had been with his mother shortly before the shooting. Officers then began canvassing the area, knocking on doors and gathering information from residents. Those tips led investigators to a residence close to the homicide scene. Shortly before 11 a.m. Wednesday, the child was found there unharmed, according to MPD. Police said two adult men were inside the residence at the time: the suspected shooter and another man. Authorities said neither was Royce’s father. The child was taken to a hospital as a precaution and appeared to be OK. What remains unclear is how long Royce was in the residence after the shooting, whether he saw any part of the violence and what relationship, if any, existed among the adults involved. Police also had not publicly explained whether Gales and the men had been together voluntarily in the apartment earlier that night or whether all of them had been living in or using the same space.
Carroll said preliminary evidence suggested the shooting grew out of an argument. He told reporters that Gales and a man were in an alley when a verbal dispute turned into gunfire. Other reporting on the case said investigators had reviewed video that appeared to capture an argument before the shooting, though police have not publicly released that footage. Carroll described the case as especially painful because of the child at its center, saying “a simple argument turned into gunfire.” The chief’s comments framed the investigation around both violence and vulnerability: a woman killed in an alley and a toddler left missing in the aftermath. Neighbors who received the Amber Alert early Wednesday said they were shaken by the idea that a child could be missing so soon after a homicide nearby. The search unfolded in a dense residential area, where information moved quickly from police radios to phones to front stoops.
The official response accelerated through the morning. MPD first asked the public for help finding Royce and said anyone who knew where he was should call 911. The department also noted that it offers a reward of up to $25,000 for information leading to arrest and conviction in District homicides. Once Royce was found, MPD canceled the Amber Alert and shifted public attention back to the criminal case. The suspect was arrested and charged with second-degree murder, though police said his identity would be released only after positive confirmation. Carroll said a bond review hearing was likely Thursday. Investigators were still questioning the second man who had been in the residence where the child was found, and police had not said whether that man was a witness, a possible accessory or simply present. Detectives were also working to contact the child’s father, according to local reporting.
The case leaves several layers of loss and uncertainty. Gales is dead, and her son survived a night that began with his mother’s killing and ended with officers carrying him to safety. Local television video showed police caring for the child and taking one man into custody, images that gave the public a clearer sense of how close the recovery site was to the homicide scene. Carroll called the outcome tragic even as he emphasized the relief of finding the boy alive. For residents in the neighborhood, the strongest feeling seemed to be a split one: relief that Royce was found unharmed, and sorrow that the search began only because his mother had been killed. By late Wednesday, that emotional divide still defined the story more than any single official statement.
Police said Wednesday night that the child had been recovered safely, one man had been charged with murder and detectives were still sorting through the evidence. The next major development is expected in court Thursday, when the suspect is likely to face a bond review as the investigation continues.
Author note: Last updated April 23, 2026.