[Senusret I]

By Jamie Stockwell
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 22, 2004; Page B04

A Northwest Washington man was fatally shot on the dance floor of a Prince George's County nightclub early Sunday after bumping into another patron, authorities said.

David Moncrieffe, 24, died at Prince George's Hospital Center after the 3 a.m. shooting in the Crossroads Entertainment Complex in the 4100 block of Baltimore Avenue in Bladensburg, said Cpl. Diane Richardson, a county police spokeswoman.

She said the shooting was "apparently unprovoked" and occurred after Moncrieffe apologized to the man he had bumped into. Richardson said no suspects have been identified and that the shooter was an African American man in his twenties, about 5-foot-9, with short hair, who wore a Philadelphia 76ers basketball jersey with the number "5" on it.

Security at the club is known among patrons as "tight," said regular customer Erica Harvey, 22, a friend of Moncrieffe's. She said each person is "searched from head to toe" before being allowed inside. Kiyo Oden, general counsel for Crossroads, said the club's management is "cooperating fully with police to see how [the shooting] happened and to ensure it doesn't happen again."

Even more troubling is that of about 500 people in the club at the time of the shooting, only one person has emerged as a witness, said Det. Troy Hardy, the lead investigator.

"How can a man get gunned down in a crowded club and either no one sees a thing or sticks around to say what they've seen?" Hardy asked.

Moncrieffe, of the 400 block of Delafield Place NW, was a regular patron of the club, known for its Caribbean and reggae music, his mother, Geraldine Williams, said yesterday.

"He went to that club almost every weekend, and he never got into any trouble," she said. "He was excited to be there Saturday because he was with his brother, who is a father, and they were there to celebrate Father's Day."

Instead, Moncrieffe's brother witnessed his sibling's homicide.

"He was just such a good man and I don't know why anyone would want to do this to him," Williams, 46, said between sobs in a telephone interview yesterday. "I'm just like, 'Oh my God. I can't believe this is happening.' I'm so messed up right now."

Williams said her son recently received a communications degree from Waynesburg College in Waynesburg, Pa., and was working with mentally and physically disabled children at Children's Hospital. He was proud of the work he was doing, she said, adding that he also served as a youth mentor at a District Boys & Girls Club.

He was a linebacker on his college's football team and a top player at Calvin Coolidge High School, from which he graduated in 1998. I thought he graduated in '97?His high school jersey, number 48, still hangs in her living room, Williams said.

"Can't nobody replace him," she said.

© 2004 The Washington Post Company