The man who police allege discarded a gun that went off while a veteran police officer tried to retrieve it from a storm drain in Northeast Washington, fatally wounding the officer last week, surrendered to police overnight, according to the department’s spokesman.
Authorities did not detail the circumstances behind Bailey’s apprehension, roughly a week after police began to search for him. His family and community members said in interviews that he had been looking for a safe way to surrender.
“He didn’t want to be on no run,” said Nee Nee Taylor, a longtime local community organizer who said she worked with the DC Safety Squad, a coalition of mobile response teams, harm reduction specialists and others who respond to those in crisis, to connect him with police.
In a statement, D.C. Police Chief Pamela A. Smith said the department’s “focus is on honoring the memory and legacy of Investigator Wayne David and giving him an exceptional send off during his funeral services next week.”
Authorities said they have linked the gun that they allege Bailey put in the drain during a police pursuit along D.C. Route 295 on Aug. 28 to the death of David, who died shortly after he was struck by a bullet from that firearm, a black Smith & Wesson .40-caliber pistol loaded with eight bullets.
David, 51, was a member of the violent crime suppression team, which is largely responsible for seizing and collecting illegal firearms in the District. The 25-year veteran was among the original members of the gun recovery unit, and he had worked in the unit beyond his retirement age.
Police say they first engaged with Bailey in the early-evening hours that day as he exited a vehicle in an alley along Quarles Street in the Kenilworth neighborhood. An arrest warrant filed in D.C. Superior Court alleges he was “exhibiting movements and actions that led them to believe that he was armed with a weapon.”
Bailey ran when the officers approached him, according to the warrant.
Police allege that Bailey ran along the southbound lanes of Route 295 and dropped the firearm down a storm drain. Police said he then ran across the busy highway, went through a gap in median strip fencing — losing a white shoe that police later found — and got onto the back of a motorcycle stopped in traffic. The driver of that motorcycle took off, police said.
Police called David to the scene to retrieve the firearm, which was seen two to three feet down the storm drain. Officers were unable to remove the grate, according to two public safety officials familiar with the investigation. Those officials said David used a metal tool typically used to unlock car doors to reach the weapon when it suddenly discharged, striking him in the head. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a matter that is still being investigated.
On Saturday, police said they had located the motorcyclist but did not arrest him. According to the warrant for Bailey’s arrest, the motorcycle driver came forward a day after the shooting. The man told police, according to the warrant, that he had been driving to Bladensburg, Md., and stopped to assist victims of a traffic crash.
The driver told police that a short time later, he encountered a man wearing no shoes screaming on the side of Route 295. He told police, according to the warrant, that the man yelled that “he had just been robbed and people were trying kill him.” The driver allowed him to get on the back of his motorcycle and he dropped him off at a convenience store in Northeast Washington. The driver has not been charged with a crime.
D.C. police said in the warrant that a search of a gold Honda in the alley off Quarles Street where officers first encountered Bailey returned a wallet with his Maryland driver’s license. In addition, police said a witness identified Bailey as the man in surveillance photographs distributed by police, as pressure mounted to nail down the circumstances ultimately ending in David’s death.
Bailey’s grandmother, Sheila Bailey Wilson, who attended his court appearance Thursday, after the hearing expressed concerns about authorities’ posture toward him.
She said her grandson is a “good person” who works hard at his construction job and takes care of his family, including a daughter who is turning 2 next month. She referenced photos of her grandson talking on his phone that had been included in court documents detailing his charge and asked, “What is suspicious about that?”
Taylor, the community organizer, did not say when Bailey asked for help. But in response, she said, the coalition requested that a police transport and police commander meet Bailey. Taylor said police agreed to the terms and the group brought Bailey to a specific location where he surrendered.
“I was on the phone and gave the request of how it should go, in a … safe way and so that’s what happened, because we keep each other safe,” Taylor said.
Bailey appeared before Magistrate Judge Moxila A. Upadhyaya on Thursday, alongside federal public defender Tezira Abe, who did not respond to an interview request. His charges — unlawful possession of a firearm with a prior conviction, unlawful possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number, and unlawfully discarding a firearm and ammunition — carry a combined maximum prison sentence of 30 years.
Court records show that in 2016, he pleaded guilty in federal court in Maryland to robbery and using a firearm in a crime of violence. He was accused along with others of robbing a T-Mobile store in Prince George’s County in April of that year. Authorities said in court documents that Bailey — wearing a mask and armed with a semiautomatic handgun — forced an employee into a storeroom, demanded a safe be opened and took 28 smartphones worth over $20,000.
David was the sixth D.C. police officer to die in the line of duty since 2007 and the first to be fatally shot since 2004, according to online department records. He had a son and a daughter, and a brother who retired from the D.C. police force.
Colleagues have spoken glowingly about the officer, noting his calm temperament and ever-present smile. An assistant police chief said David had probably seized or recovered more illegal firearms than anyone else on the force.
Colleagues described David as a quiet, unassuming fixture on the force who was passionate about his job. He trained many of the leaders in the department and mentored youths.
David’s funeral is scheduled for 12:30 to 2 p.m. Sept. 12 at Ebenezer AME Church in Prince George’s County. Bailey is next scheduled to appear in court Tuesday for a detention hearing.
