Charles County detectives have charged an 18-year-old Waldorf man in connection with the fatal shooting of a 19-year-old White Plains man that happened during a dispute in the early morning hours of April 1.
The Charles County Sheriff’s Office said detectives with the Criminal Investigations Division arrested Terrell Lamont Thompson on Aug. 5 after a Charles County grand jury indicted him on charges including first-degree murder, second-degree murder and related offenses. Thompson was taken into custody without incident and is being held at the Charles County Detention Center without bond.
The case stems from a shooting on Enid Blyton Place in White Plains just before 3 a.m. on April 1. Officers responding to reports of gunfire found that a group of people had become involved in a dispute during which multiple shots were fired, striking 19-year-old Tyon Makai Bias of White Plains. Bias was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Several nearby homes were also struck by gunfire during the incident, though no one inside those residences was injured.
In the days after the shooting, the Sheriff’s Office said it was actively pursuing leads and, according to the department’s initial appeal for information, offered a reward of up to $10,000 for information leading to an arrest. Detective Sapienza, who is listed as the lead investigator on both the original case and Thompson’s arrest, asked anyone with information to come forward as the investigation continued through the spring and summer.
Thompson’s arrest closes out more than four months of investigation into Bias’s death, one of several violent crimes detectives in the Criminal Investigations Division have worked in the White Plains area over the past two years. The community, a fast-growing residential area near U.S. 301 that has absorbed much of Charles County’s recent population growth, has also seen a string of other serious incidents in that stretch, including two fatal officer-involved shootings investigated separately by the Maryland Attorney General’s Independent Investigations Division.
As with any indictment, the charges against Thompson represent an accusation rather than a finding of guilt, and he is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in court. His case will proceed through the Charles County Circuit Court, where prosecutors will need to present evidence connecting him to the shooting beyond the grand jury’s initial finding of probable cause.
The Sheriff’s Office did not disclose in its announcement what specific evidence led detectives to identify Thompson as a suspect, nor did it describe Thompson’s relationship, if any, to Bias or to others believed to have been involved in the initial dispute. Additional details are expected to emerge as the case moves through pretrial proceedings.
Anyone with additional information about the case is asked to contact Detective Sapienza at 301-609-6554. Residents can also submit tips anonymously through Charles County Crime Solvers, which offers cash rewards for information leading to an arrest or indictment in unsolved violent crimes across the county.
