Lorenzo Thompson Fires Gun at Three People, Killing 14-Year-Old Niko Estep, While Standing Next to His Mother
Alice Wright, Daily Mail. November 14, 2023
This is the shocking moment a 17-year-old shot a 14-year-old dead on the streets of DC while his mother stood by and did nothing – before he was caught bragging about the shooting online.
Surveillance footage shows the teen, believed to be Lorenzo Thompson, 17, in a black hoodie and balaclava raising a gun outside the Crown gas station at 14th and Euclid streets NW in Columbia Heights at about 11:30pm on November 3.
DC Police say Lorenzo Thompson, 17, shot two people at a gas station, killing Niko Estep, 14.
Thompson's own mother is believed to have casually watched the murder while holding her son's scooter for him.
Thompson bragged about the shooting on Instagram three days later. pic.twitter.com/acJqJycWDq
— National Conservative (@NatCon2022) November 15, 2023
The woman with red braids and wearing a white coat, believed to be Thompson’s mother, watches on but does nothing to diffuse the situation.
Two victims were shot and taken to hospital, one of whom, later named as 14-year-old Niko Estep, did not survive.
Three days later Thompson took to Instagram to brag abut the killing while wearing the same Moose Knuckle jacket and Jordan Retro sneakers seen on the gunman in the gas station video, court documents filed in DC Superior Court allege.
‘The defendant shows no remorse during this broadcast and it appears that [he] is celebrating with others as he demonstrates someone turning around to run and then falling after being shot,’ police wrote in the arrest warrant.
Police searched Thompson’s bedroom following the live broadcast on the social media platform and found an ammunition magazine of the same caliber as the gun used to kill the victim.
Thompson was also identified by a police officer who had arrested him for a prior robbery.
After reviewing the surveillance footage the officer told detectives that the shooter looked like Thompson and the woman like his mother, court documents state.
‘Officer Whitfield looked at the still shot of the female with red braids for approximately 15-20 seconds before he stated that it looked like Lorenzo [sic] Thompson’s mother,’ the documents read.
The woman in the white jacket was seen following the gunman as he rode a scooter onto the parking lot before the shooting and then wheeled his scooter back to the suspect’s home address after the killing.
Thompson, however, is the only person currently charged in Estep’s murder.
He was arrested last week and has been charged as an adult with second-degree murder while armed.
A motive for the deadly gunfire was not immediately revealed.
On Friday, a judge ordered Thompson detained and set a hearing for November 16.
