A Norfolk man has pleaded guilty in a case involving an attempted revenge killing in Northeast D.C.
John Nelson McQuillen, 65, pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact to assault with intent to kill after helping his longtime partner to flee and avoid apprehension after she attempted to kill a woman in Northeast Washington.
According to the government’s evidence, McQuillen and his longtime partner, Tommie Lynn Dunmire, shared an adult son who was murdered in Cleveland, Ohio in 2021. Over the ensuing months, McQuillen and Dunmire became frustrated with the investigation of their son’s death, and Dunmire began to conduct her own investigation.
Dunmire’s mental state significantly deteriorated over this time.
On Nov. 5, McQuillen and Dunmire traveled by car from Norfolk to the victim’s home in Northeast Washington. Dunmire had mistakenly identified the victim as responsible for their son’s murder, and McQuillen knew that Dunmire intended to harm this person, according to the government’s evidence.
The victim, a 30-year-old woman, was not involved in any way in the homicide.
Surveillance video shows Dunmire, wearing a brown vest and brown baseball cap and carrying a cardboard box, knocking on the front door of the victim’s home at approximately 9:25 p.m. Dunmire announced herself as a “UPS” delivery person, stating that she had a package for the victim.
When the victim opened the door, Dunmire fired two shots from a silver revolver that she was holding inside of an opening cut in the back of the carboard box.
The two shots struck the victim in the abdomen. McQuillen then drove himself and Dunmire out of the area and changed the license plates on their vehicle.
MPD officers stopped the vehicle soon thereafter in the 1400 block of Florida Avenue NE.
During the stop, Dunmire shot herself, using the revolver that she had used to shoot the victim. She later died.
The victim was transported to a hospital and survived the injuries.
McQuillen was arrested in Virginia on March 11, and transported to Washington, D.C. on April 5, where he remains detained pending sentencing.
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