Man Charged With Killing His Mother

A Southeast District man was arrested and charged with killing his mother in her bed Thursday.

Damon D. Taylor, 25, was charged yesterday in D.C. Superior Court with second-degree murder while armed. D.C. Magistrate Judge Michael McCarthy ordered him held without bond until a hearing March 16.

According to criminal documents filed with the court, police were called to the 900 block of Bellevue Street SE after a report of a man with a gun about 9:30 p.m. Thursday. They found Taylor holding a Smith & Wesson Walther .22-caliber handgun. Two officers ordered him to drop the gun. As one of the officers approached, Taylor allegedly began shouting: "I did something stupid. I shot my mother."

Taylor led police to an apartment in the 4200 block of Ninth Street SE, where he had lived with his mother for three years, according to the documents.

Margaret Taylor, 54, was found in her bed, bleeding from multiple gunshot wounds to her upper torso. She was taken to Howard University Hospital, where she died.

A witness who claimed to have been in the apartment at the time of the shooting told police that Taylor came to the apartment with a gun. When the witness asked Taylor why he had the weapon, Taylor did not respond. The witness told police that Taylor walked to his mother's bedroom and fired the gun twice. The witness, who identified Taylor by name, then fled the apartment.

In 2003, Taylor was sentenced to three years' probation for selling heroin. A year later, he was sentenced to 90 days in jail for cocaine possession.