Man charged after spate of shootings and carjacking attempts in D.C., Md.

Ex-inmate accused of shooting at three people, wounding one

A D.C. man who was released last summer after serving 17 years in prison for raping an adolescent girl was arrested Saturday after police said he went on a violent rampage in the District and Maryland, firing shots at three people, one of whom was hit in the face, and attempting several carjackings at gunpoint.

Monteray Horn, 43, was arrested after a spate of mayhem that began Saturday morning on a Metro train in Southeast Washington, where a man was fired at but not wounded, and continued in a mall parking lot in Montgomery County, Md., where Horn tried but failed to carjack at least four vehicles and shot one of the drivers, Montgomery police said.

The woman, wounded in the face, was hospitalized in serious condition, police said.

After the parking lot violence, which occurred outside the Westfield Wheaton mall in the county’s Wheaton section, “officers tracked Horn to a residential area in the 2900 block of Faulkner Place,” a short distance from the shopping plaza, police said in a statement.

“Horn attempted to force his way into a house by smashing a window with the butt of his gun,” the statement said. It said that Horn, of the 500 block of 59th Street NE, “was taken into custody without incident at approximately 11:15 a.m. A .40 caliber handgun was located at the scene.”

According to online court records, Horn was charged with attempted second-degree murder, attempted home invasion, armed robbery, first-degree assault, four counts of attempted armed carjacking and five firearms offenses.

The records do not indicate whether he entered pleas to those 13 felony charges when he appeared Monday in Montgomery County District Court. Horn was ordered jailed pending a preliminary hearing April 7, the records show. It is unclear whether he is represented by an attorney.

Police said the Saturday rampage began after Horn, carrying a pistol, boarded a Metro train in the District’s Anacostia neighborhood. “Horn shot at an adult male” on the train, the statement said. “The bullet went through the victim’s clothing but did not strike the victim.”

Horn, still in the District, got off the train and carjacked a vehicle at gunpoint, according to the statement. The charges in Montgomery do not include that initial shooting and carjacking in D.C., and it was not immediately clear whether charges had been filed in those incidents.

Montgomery police said Horn soon abandoned the carjacked vehicle in the District and again boarded a Metro train, this time traveling to Wheaton.

Shortly after 11 a.m., in the mall parking lot, he tried to carjack an Audi by pointing a gun at the female driver, who had two small children with her, the statement said. “The woman was able to get her children out of the car and run away. Horn entered the Audi and although he had the key, he was not able to start the car.”

Investigators believe he then tried to carjack a small red Honda, but the motorist drove off, the statement said. On Monday, police were still trying to find that person.

Next he tried to carjack a BMW in the parking lot, but that driver also sped away, according to the statement. “Horn fired into the BMW, shooting out a window. The female driver was not injured.” Police said he then “approached a woman in a Hyundai Tucson and attempted to open the door of the Hyundai. The adult female was able to drive away.”

After that, he “ran across the parking lot where he tried to carjack” another vehicle, and fired at the woman behind the wheel, wounding her in the face, the statement said. “Unable to steal her Honda Civic, Horn ran away” to the neighborhood where police caught up with him.

In 2007, when Horn was 26, he was arrested by D.C. police and charged with raping a 13-year-old girl while he was staying in the youth’s home, according to a police affidavit filed in D.C. Superior Court. In September that year, he pleaded guilty to first-degree child sex abuse and was sentenced to 17 years behind bars.

He was released in August, according to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, which handles the incarceration of D.C. offenders.