A 17-year-old has been arrested in connection with the Howard University homecoming shooting that injured five people, one of whom is paralyzed from the waist down.
Kaevaughn Dudley, 17, of the District, was arrested on November 14, 2025, and charged in a criminal complaint with twenty counts for the shooting at a Howard University Homecoming event on October 24, 2025. Despite his age, he is being charged as an adult in this crime.
The shooting occurred on Friday, Oct. 24, when the city’s ShotSpotter system detected nine gunshots near the 600 block of Howard Road NW. Officers already deployed for the homecoming event responded immediately and found five victims, the youngest a 13-year-old boy shot in the arm.
Witnesses said Dudley, walking in a group of up to nine individuals all dressed in black, passed another group while walking down the street. Words were exchanged, and then shots were fired, leaving people fleeing in all directions.
Police recovered three handguns at the scene—one beneath a victim and another that reportedly fell from a person’s clothing during a pat-down. One victim was treated at the hospital but refused to explain how he had been shot. Two individuals initially charged in the case were later ruled out as suspects as none of the guns found on the scene matched the bullet casings that were discovered.
A Morgan State University student was discovered in nearby bushes, shouting that she had been shot and could not feel her legs. She was taken to Howard University Hospital, where doctors said she was stable but experiencing a worsening neurological deficit. She remains paralyzed from the chest down.
Investigators reviewed multiple surveillance videos from Howard University security systems and traced the suspects’ movements through campus, concluding the group had arrived earlier that evening via Metro.
Metro officials later identified three D.C. Public Schools SmarTrip cards associated with members of the group. The cards were placed on an active tracking list to alert officers upon future use.
The first alert came on Oct. 28 at Gallery Place Metro, where an individual was stopped. Police used information from known-associate databases to identify 17-year-old Dudley as a potential acquaintance of the detained person who has not been charged. The next day, officers stopped a second group at Brookland Metro who were using flagged Smartrip cards. One individual was found to be wanted on an active warrant from Montgomery County, and police seized his phone.
Investigators then learned that Dudley had been arrested on Oct. 29 for possession of marijuana with intent to distribute. The arresting officer informed detectives that police had seized his phone, and discovered that Dudley operated a TikTok account that openly showed him carrying a handgun.
Due to the drug arrest, police were able to examine Dudley’s phone and found a group chat in which individuals discussed the shooting and what they had done.
Investigators later recovered additional footage from Union Station, where another TikTok video was filmed, and used surveillance cameras to further confirm Dudley’s identity.
Dudley appeared before Superior Court Judge Danya A. Dayson over the weekend and is charged with five counts each of assault with intent to murder while armed, assault with intent to kill while armed, aggravated assault while armed and possession of a firearm during a crime of violence, for each of the five victims who were struck by gunfire. A preliminary hearing has been scheduled for December 18, 2025.
The full police affidavit is available from the DC Superior Court.
