Prince George's Police Identify Two of Three Homicide Victims From Thursday, as the Chief Addresses a Violent Day
County police have named two of the three people found dead on Thursday, October 29 - an 18-year-old in Hyattsville and a 26-year-old in College Park - while a third man, found shot in a roadway, remains unidentified.
Prince George's County Police have identified two of three homicide victims found dead on Thursday, October 29, a day violent enough that the police chief released a statement to reassure residents. Omar Jonathan Ventura Ajbal, 18, of Hyattsville, was found dead of an apparent gunshot wound shortly before 11 a.m. at the Langley-Hampshire Neighborhood Park in Hyattsville, police said.
The park discovery was the last of three killings that day. The first occurred at about 4:15 a.m. in the 9900 block of 51st Terrace in College Park, where officers responding to reports of a stabbing found 26-year-old Jose Edin Hernandez Vasquez inside a residence with trauma to his body; despite lifesaving measures, he died at the scene. About an hour later, officers responded to the 1700 block of Belle Haven Drive, between Martin Luther King Jr. Highway and Sheriff Road, and found a man in the roadway who had been shot. That man has not been identified, and he was pronounced dead at the scene.
County police said in a Thursday statement that the three homicides are not believed to be random or related. Before Thursday, police said, homicides in the county were down 33 percent compared with the same time last year, and down 55 percent compared with the same time in 2024. Police Chief George Nader said in the statement that the reductions reflect progress but that the department will never lose sight of the human cost of violence - a life lost, a family grieving and a community changed behind every homicide. Anyone with information about the killings is asked to call the homicide unit at 301-516-2512.
