The family of a man killed in a violent rampage on the D.C.-Prince George’s County border is outraged over the crime spree that they believe could have been prevented if the suspect had been kept in jail on a previous charge.
Kurt Modeste, 56, had just left church on July 2. He was picking up food at a McDonald’s in Capitol Heights to take to his brother, who has multiple sclerosis. He was his primary caregiver.
Modeste was in the 8400 block of Central Avenue when a man tried to carjack him. Modeste tried to drive off, “at which point, the suspect fired multiple rounds, killing” him, said Zachary O’Lare, acting deputy chief of the Prince George’s County Police Department's Bureau of Investigations & Forensic Science.
Daeyon Ross, 22, was arrested for that fatal carjacking and a crime spree. Police say he carjacked other people, killed two dogs, led police on a pursuit from Prince George's County to D.C. and exchanged gunfire with officers.
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The victim’s family is outraged that Ross was allowed to walk away from a gun possession charge last year.
“He should have been locked up. The District of Columbia failed this family. They failed us. He should not have been out,” Modeste’s ex-wife, Pamela Modeste, said.
She said that she and her ex-husband were still good friends, because that’s the way he was. His big heart had room for everybody: their five children, grandchildren, friends and his coworkers at Metro, where he was a bus operator.
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Modeste had so many friends that his funeral looked like one that would be held for a VIP, which he was to those who loved him.
Joel Modeste, who cannot leave his bed because of MS, lost his brother, roommate and primary caregiver.
"He always said, it was him and me against the world," Joel Modeste said.
Kurt Modeste was killed less than seven months after the suspect was released from the D.C. jail after charges for possessing a loaded Taurus G3 9 mm pistol were dismissed.
His release came shortly after then-D.C. police Chief Robert Contee announced an internal investigation into alleged misconduct over gun seizures.
Court documents indicate prosecutors told the judge one or more officers involved in Ross’ August 2022 arrest were the subject of that investigation.
One of the charges for which Ross has now been indicted is unlawful possession of a firearm, the same charge that was dropped in 2022.
Renard McDaniel called Modeste his best friend.
"He was just that guy. He was that dude. And I've never met a guy, other than like my father or my brother, that I can tell another man, 'I love you,'" he said.
