D.C. man charged with second-degree murder, accused of hit-and-run while fleeing police

A man from Northeast D.C. is facing charges of second-degree murder after driving into someone and speeding away from police in August 2024.

Metropolitan Police Department detectives arrested suspect Jalen McLendon, 32, Tuesday, more than a year after the alleged incident occurred. The police did not say where they apprehended the Northeast resident. 

Early in the morning of Aug. 31, 2024, an officer in the 1600 block of K Street NW saw a car driving with no lights on. The cop tried to make a stop, but the driver of the car, alleged to be Mr. McClendon, kept going at low speeds before turning onto 17th Street NW and speeding up. 

Mr. McClendon then crossed the double-yellow line at the intersection of 17th and L streets NW before going down L Street, police say. As the officer continued pursuit, Mr. McClendon is accused of running a red light at the intersection of 15th and L streets, hitting a moped driver, Alpha Oumar Kake, 25, and continuing to flee.

The officer stopped to help Kake, and D.C. Fire and EMS took the moped rider to a hospital, where he died just over a month later on Oct. 1.

Kake was a resident of Temple Hills, Maryland. His uncle, who did not provide a name, told Washington’s WRC-TV in October 2024 that Kake, a Guinean, was in the U.S. to make money as a food delivery driver to send back to his home country.