Murder trial begins for 2023 Rock Creek Parkway crash that left 3 dead

Dan Ronan | dan.ronan@wtop.com
March 25, 2026, 5:09 AM


A crash on Rock Creek Parkway on March 15 left three people dead and two more injured. (WTOP/Kyle Cooper)

A federal prosecutor told jurors deciding the fate of 46-year-old Nakita Walker that her actions in a 2023 car crash in D.C. that left three people dead should be charged as second-degree murder. ... On the morning of March 15, 2023, Walker fled a traffic stop and slammed her black Lexus SUV into a Honda Accord, killing its driver and two rideshare passengers.

“She was speeding and ran a red light on Independence Avenue,” prosecutor Jamie Carter said in her opening statement to the jury. “She was speeding up the Rock Creek Parkway, after fleeing a Park Police officer.” ... Lyft driver Mohamed Kamara, 42, and passengers Olvin Torres Velasquez and Jonathan Cabrera Mendez, both 23, died in the head-on collision near the P Street NW exit on the Rock Creek Parkway.

But Walker’s defense attorney, A.J. Amissah, told jurors his client did not commit murder. ... “One of the keys in second-degree murder is that it is malicious. This was an accident,” he said. “She was trying to get home to her child.”

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Walker has a long list of traffic violations in D.C. records show that in 2023, she had 44 unpaid speed camera tickets and 28 for speeding, totaling $14,300.

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Dan Ronan
Weekend anchor Dan Ronan is an award-winning journalist with a specialty in business and finance reporting.
dan.ronan@wtop.com