In connection with a 2021 Labor Day weekend triple homicide in Washington, D.C., that claimed three lives and injured three more, six people—including Rockville resident Toyia Johnson—were found guilty. Johnson and another defendant were found guilty of tampering with evidence and acting as accessories after the fact, while four defendants were found guilty of murder and associated crimes by a jury.
Erwin Dubose, Kamar Queen, Damonta Thompson, William Johnson Lee, and Mussay Rezene, all of Washington, D.C., and Toyia Johnson, of Rockville, MD, were found guilty today in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia on all charges for the Labor Day weekend murders of 31-year-old Donetta Dyson, 24-year-old Keenan Braxton, and 37-year-old Johnny Joyner in front of 633 Longfellow Street, NW, according to the DC U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Dubose, Queen, Johnson Lee, and Thompson were found guilty by a jury on July 3, 2025, of three counts of first-degree murder with aggravating circumstances, three counts of assault with intent to kill while armed, and conspiracy to commit a crime of violence. In addition to being an accessory after the fact to assault with intent to murder while armed, the jury found defendant Johnson guilty of tampering with physical evidence. In addition to being an accomplice after the fact to first degree murder while armed, the jury found defendant Rezene guilty of tampering with physical evidence.
“This city will not tolerate this senseless violence,” U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro declared. These thugs’ complete inhumanity is demonstrated by the innocent bystanders they placed in danger. The DC U.S. Attorney’s Office’s efforts to put an end to these heinous acts have been upheld by today’s verdict, and we anticipate keeping these offenders out of society for a very long time.
On September 4, 2021, at around 7:33 p.m., Thompson drove Dubose, Queen, and Johnson Lee to the 600 block of Longfellow Street, NW, according to the government’s evidence. Those three men exited the car, snuck to the intersection of Longfellow and 7th Streets, NW, and opened fire on a neighborhood gathering. The three gunmen fled the scene and went back to the waiting car that Thompson was driving. The shooting claimed the lives of three victims—Ms. Dyson, Mr. Braxton, and Mr. Joyner—and left three others with non-fatal bullet wounds.
Toyia Johnson, a Dubose associate who rented the car Thompson was driving at the time of the murder, started making many 911 calls shortly after the murder, claiming that the suspect vehicle had been stolen. Dubose and Rezene traveled to the 4500 block of Eads Street, NE, just after midnight on September 6, 2021, and set the car on fire. According to the evidence, the triple homicide was committed in vengeance for a shooting that had taken place in the 800 block of Oglethorpe Street, NE, an hour earlier.
Chief Pamela Smith of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) joined the announcement.
Chief Smith and U.S. Attorney Pirro praised the efforts of the Metropolitan Police Department investigators in announcing the verdict. Lastly, they praised the efforts of the case’s prosecutors, Assistant United States Attorneys Colleen Kukowski and Charles R. Jones.
