Norfolk Police last Thursday announced four men have been arrested and charged in connection with the 2011 killing of Christopher Cummings, the nephew of former Baltimore congressman Elijah Cummings.
Christopher, then a 20-year-old student at Virginia’s Old Dominion University, was fatally shot in his residence on June 10, 2011, 13News Now reported. The deceased’s roommate, Jake Carey, also sustained near-fatal gunshot wounds during the incident but he survived. The home the shooting occurred wasn’t far from the university, and authorities said the residence had been broken into prior to Christopher’s killing.
Authorities identified the four apprehended suspects as 32-year-old Kwaume L. Edwards, 31-year-old Javon L. Doyle, Ahmad R. Watson, 30, and Rashad D. Dooley, 28. The four men have been hit with 15 charges in total.
“While my son is lying cold in his coffin, these guys are out there running the streets, so it’s good to have them off the streets,” Christopher’s father, James Cummings, said, adding that his son’s murder is still fresh in his mind though it happened ten years ago.
“As far as life is concerned, life won’t change that much for us because we will never get our son back and we have to live the way we have been living,” he said.
Police said Edwards, Doyle and Dooley are being held without bond in detention centers in Virginia. Watson, on the other hand, was arrested in Baltimore and arrangements are being made to extradite him to Virginia.
“For more than a decade now, investigators have been relentless in their efforts to solve this case,” Norfolk Police Chief Larry Boone said in a statement obtained by 13News Now. “They have followed up on every lead necessary to ensure the Norfolk Police Department was able to deliver justice to both the surviving victim and to the Cummings family. I want to recognize all the hard work and the level of commitment and professionalism of all those who were involved in bringing this investigation to a close.”
Reacting to the arrests in an interview with WAVY, Carey said he couldn’t really explain how he feels. “I’m kind of on the cusp of crying and being extremely happy at the same time. It’s kind of hard to tell how I really feel. I have mixed emotions,” he said.
“They’ve done a great job and even though it did take a long time, I’m glad that justice has been served and these people have been found and caught.”
Meanwhile, Christopher’s father said he has one desire leading up to the trial of the four suspects. “I’m hoping that one guy that he will be arraigned in the Elijah E. Cummings Courthouse. I think that will be poetic justice,” James Cummings said.
