How a deadly shooting in Washington ended with evidence destroyed – and no arrests

Thwarted at best by misdirection and at worst by possible criminal interference by authorities, police ultimately concluded that 32-year-old Nnanyereugo Onuoha was shot by an unlicensed security guard during an altercation that began at Moi Moi, a West African restaurant at 1627 K Street NW.

In a letter to the city’s liquor authority, Washington Police Chief Pamela A. Smith initially described the case as “second-degree murder” and claimed that Moi Moi’s employees “may have committed a crime by destroying evidence” while “cleaning up the crime scene.” Authorities claimed the owner scrubbed the blood from the K Street sidewalk before police arrived.

But the police investigation ended with the prosecution finding that the security guard had shot Onuoha in self-defense – to the disappointment of Onuoha’s family and investigators who looked into Moi Moi’s contradictory statements. No charges have been filed in connection with the case. Almost six months later, the only sanction was the revocation of Moi Moi’s liquor license. The restaurant owner declined to comment on the details of the incident.

At the hearing before the DC Alcoholic Beverage and Cannabis Board, Anthony P. Celo of the DC Attorney General’s Office told the panel, “Mr. Onuoha is dead, although he should not be.”

The U.S. Attorney’s Office, which made the decision not to file charges, declined to comment, citing a law that prohibits prosecutors from publicly discussing decisions about whether to file charges.

“Probably blood”

The first emergency calls came in on January 9, a Tuesday, shortly before 4:30 a.m.

One person saw a fight and heard a bang that they thought was a gunshot in the 1600 block of K Street NW. Another caller saw a vehicle crash into a cafe around the corner at 17th and L Streets. That caller reported that the people involved in the accident fled, and that someone had thrown a gun down a drain.

The police were initially unsure what had happened and began searching for a crime scene.

When a 911 call came in from Howard University Hospital about a man with a gunshot wound, they still weren’t sure how it all fit together.

Onuoha died at 4:52 am. before anyone could interview him.

The man who brought him called Onuoha’s brother. His brother called the police.

Now the authorities have found a connection between the noise on K Street and the traffic accident. And a murder of Investigate. But they still couldn’t find a crime scene.

Police cordoned off a portion of K Street in front of Moi Moi with yellow tape. They shuttled between the restaurant and the accident scene, shining flashlights on the sidewalks to look for evidence.

Police said they found the gun in the sewer near the cafe, deepening the mystery. Back at Moi Moi, they knocked on the restaurant’s locked door and yelled “police,” according to testimony at a hearing before the DC Alcoholic Beverage and Cannabis Board and investigative documents.

Brendan Jasper, a detective with the DC Police Department’s homicide unit, arrived around 5 a.m. Police continued to knock on the door. Still no one answered. Authorities contacted the building’s landlord and asked for a key.

Then Jasper testified at the Liquor Authority hearing in February: “We saw what we thought was blood outside the door of the bar.”

In a search warrant, it was described as a single drop, raising suspicions that someone inside might be injured.

Police broke down the door at 7:08 a.m.

Jasper testified that inside they found Moi Moi’s owner, Howsoon Cham, two security guards, an employee and a regular customer.

According to a report by a liquor authority investigator, Cham said he did not answer the door because he thought someone was trying to rob the restaurant. Later, at the public hearing, he testified that he did not hear police because he was in the kitchen bandaging a bloodied security guard.

When they finally arrived in Moi Moi, police said they confiscated a concealed firearm from the security guard who allegedly shot Onuoha. Onuoha was described by his family as an aspiring property investor, peacemaker and protector, and a devoted father to his young son.

Onuoha’s 33-year-old brother, Uzoma Onuoha, said he believed the shooting was “criminal” and the family “disagrees” with the way the investigation was being conducted.

When contacted in the spring, Cham declined to comment on the case. He said only that Moi Moi remained open and served food. Because the liquor license was revoked, alcohol can no longer be served. This does not affect food service. Attempts to reach Cham in late June were unsuccessful. The restaurant was open when a reporter visited recently.

The argument started over money.

According to the liquor authority’s report, Cham told Alcoholic Beverage and Cannabis Administration investigators that a male customer who was at the restaurant with Onuoha “became aggressive” toward a woman as they argued about how much money they had spent at another club earlier that night.

““He became hostile and verbally abused everyone in the company,” Cham told the investigator.

Uzoma Onuoha said a man he later learned was a security guard grabbed his brother’s friend. A clip of the video from inside Moi Moi played at the liquor board hearing shows a man in a hoodie, identified as a security guard, violently shoving a patron towards the door.

Uzoma Onuoha said he believes his brother did not know the man who pushed his friend was a security guard. The guard was not wearing a uniform and his gun was concealed. A report from the Liquor Authority said the guard, whose identity was not known, had a firearm permit but was not licensed as a security guard. Licensed security guards are required to wear uniforms and carry their firearms visibly.

“He thought a homeless man was attacking his friend. My brother rushed to help his friend,” Uzoma Onuoha said in an interview. Once outside, the two men kicked the security guard to the ground, the liquor authority report said. During the scuffle, a gun fell to the ground. Onuoha’s friend broke free, picked up the gun and “went back to fighting,” the liquor authority report said. The report does not name Onuoha’s friend, and his relatives said they did not know his name.

The video shows that the front door was open, so the security cameras couldn’t see much of the fight. However, the group appeared briefly, their legs kicking.

Cham – whose staff initially denied any knowledge of a fight, according to the liquor authority report – told investigators that one of the men “kicked the head of the security guard who was on the ground. I stood next to him. I said, ‘Brother, stop. You can’t do that. This guy’s head is bleeding.'”

The Alcohol Authority report states: “A few moments later A security guard can be seen brandishing a firearm and a flash goes off.” The security guard ran back into Moi Moi and another employee “locked the door behind him.” The Liquor Authority report states the security guard was heard saying “that he shot someone.”

Jasper, the homicide detective who investigated the case, testified that Onuoha and his friend got into separate vehicles and drove north on 17th Street NW, one behind the other. Onuoha crashed into the cafe, and Jasper said his friend put him in his vehicle and drove to the hospital. Police said they found a handgun in a sewer outside a cafe, and Jasper testified that investigators are convinced that gun “belonged to one of the individuals from the altercation outside Moi Moi.”

Collin Cenci of the Attorney General’s Office told the Alcohol Board that Cham “walked straight out the same door” that the security guard had just come back in through at Moi Moi’s, “got down on his hands and knees and scrubbed away the blood that had flowed from Mr. Onuoha’s gunshot wound.”

In his testimony, Cham admitted to cleaning up the blood and said he had customers who wanted to leave after the fight.

“I didn’t want people to step on it when they went out,” he testified. “Maybe I was wrong, maybe that’s right.”

“This time someone was killed”

The January shooting was not the first time Cham has gotten into trouble. Two years ago, the Liquor Authority fined the restaurant after someone allegedly fired a gun outside Moi Moi. In order to keep his liquor license, Cham agreed to several conditions at the time, including calling Washington police immediately in the event of a suspected crime and keeping firearms out of the restaurant.

At a hearing on the case in 2022, liquor board member James Short Jr. voted against keeping Moi Moi’s license, telling members, “Next time we might not be so lucky. Someone could get killed.”

At the February hearing, Cenci reminded board members of Short’s “prophetic words.”

“You will learn that we were not so lucky this time,” Cenci said. “This time someone was killed.”

According to the liquor authority report, Cham did not call the police after the shooting.

When a Liquor Authority investigator asked Cham this year if he tried to intervene in the fight, Cham “giggled” and said he watched from a window, according to an investigator’s report.

“Mr. Cham stated that he had no intention of calling the police about a street brawl,” the investigator wrote.

Cham defended himself during the hearing, acting as his own attorney and questioning witnesses, including Jasper, the homicide investigator. He said his restaurant was “not a diner, not a hole in the wall, you know what I mean?”, according to a transcript. “The fact that I’m labeled as the brutal guy who opens places where there’s just gunfire and people get killed and stuff, that’s not me. I’m not that gangster.”

The Washington DC Police Department said in a statement that “investigators thoroughly investigated this incident and presented facts and evidence to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, which prosecutes adult offenders in most criminal cases in the District.”

“The U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to prosecute because the individual acted in self-defense,” the police statement said. “This individual will not be charged in connection with this incident.”