D.C. police have arrested a man in connection with the killing of a Kentucky teacher and wrestling coach who was fatally shot on the campus of Catholic University during what his family believes was a random robbery, authorities said Tuesday.
The spokesman said Macedo was charged with first-degree murder while armed in the July 5 shooting of Maxwell Emerson, 25. Emerson, who lived in Crestwood, Ky., came to D.C. to participate in a professional development seminar for educators, his family said.
Few details were immediately known about the suspect or the circumstances of the shooting. Macedo could make an initial appearance in D.C. Superior Court on Wednesday, when an arrest warrant and affidavit revealing more information is expected to be unsealed.
It could not be determined Tuesday whether Macedo has an attorney in the homicide case.
D.C. police arrested Macedo during a traffic stop in 2019 and charged him with having an illegal firearm after finding a .40-caliber Glock loaded with 15 hollow-point bullets tucked under a sweater.
Court records show he pleaded guilty to carrying an unlicensed gun and was sentenced to probation, with a one-year prison term suspended. Those records show he violated the terms of his release and in 2020 was resentenced to six months in jail.
Authorities said that after his release, he continued to violate his release conditions, alleging that he failed to report to the probation office, among other issues. A hearing on those violations is scheduled for July 18.
His attorney in the gun and probation violation case, Henry A. Escoto, declined to comment Tuesday.
Emerson was among 10 people fatally shot in the District in the first five days of July, violence that fueled concern about safety and crime in the nation’s capital. Among the other victims were a community college student and a military interpreter from Afghanistan who escaped the Taliban and worked as a Lyft driver in D.C.
Police said Emerson was shot as he walked near Father O’Connell Hall on Alumni Lane, a private road on the edge of campus near Michigan Avenue NE. His family said he was staying near there with others who were attending the conference.
Authorities had initially said that it appeared the shooting was the result of a dispute between people who knew each other. The family disputed that claim, saying that Emerson didn’t know anybody in D.C. and that he had texted his mother during the attack: “Help I’m being robbed at gunpoint.”
At a news conference last week, Leslie Parsons, an assistant chief who heads the D.C. police investigative services bureau, said preliminary information showed Emerson and another man “were walking together and arrived where the offense occurred, together.” Parsons declined to elaborate.
After the arrest Tuesday, police declined to comment on a possible motive.
Emerson had taught social studies and was an assistant coach for the wrestling team at Oldham County High School, in a suburb of Louisville. His sister said his father had been a principal of a school in the same district, and his mother had been a teacher.
The sister, Ellen Emerson, said her brother had won a grant to attend the seminar in D.C. She said he had visited the city often, and had attended the Fourth of July fireworks celebration on the National Mall.
She said Tuesday she was relieved by the arrest but added, “I just hope we can get some answers.”