Police in Prince George’s County arrested a man suspected of fatally shooting a man working as a food delivery driver in Mitchellville, Maryland, this summer.
Tracy Miles Goodson, 39, of the Mitchellville area, was charged with killing Noel Njoku, of Springdale, on Aug. 12, police announced Monday.
Njoku was 48, had recently started working for DoorDash and is survived by his spouse and four children.
Detectives believe Goodson killed Njoku while robbing him, police said. They were strangers to each other.
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Njoku was found suffering from gunshot wounds at about 12:20 a.m. in a car in the 3700 block of Lottsford Vista Road, police said.
"The preliminary investigation revealed Njoku was delivering food to a home in the area when he was shot," police said in a statement.
He was taken to a hospital, where he died.
Njoku’s wife and brother wept and pleaded for answers in the hours after his death.
“I want to know who killed my husband,” the victim’s wife said.
After Njoku failed to answer his wife’s phone calls the night he was killed, she went from hospital to hospital looking for him. Finally, an officer at University of Maryland Capital Region Medical Center broke the news.
Njoku was a happy, “peace-loving person” who moved to the U.S. from Nigeria decades ago, his brother said. He was the father of a 15-year-old daughter, 13-year-old daughter and 11-year-old twin boys.
Goodson was charged with first- and second-degree murder, among other charges. He was held without bond. It wasn’t immediately clear if he had a lawyer.
DoorDash released this statement in the wake of Njoku's death: “We are deeply saddened by this senseless act of violence and our hearts go out to the Dasher's loved ones at this incredibly difficult time. The safety of our community is paramount and we immediately reached out to law enforcement to offer our assistance in any way we can. We are actively working to get in touch with this Dasher’s family to extend our full support.”
Other delivery drivers have been attacked in the D.C. area in recent years.
In 2019, DoorDash driver Yusuf Ozgur was shot and killed at a Denny's restaurant in Manassas, Virginia, after he unknowingly held the door for robbery suspects as they fled, police said.
This spring, two teen girls carjacked Uber Eats driver Mohammad Anwar near Nationals Park. He died after his car flipped.
Anyone with information on the case is asked to contact police.
