Rockville Metro Station Shooting Trial Begins

An 18-year-old from Rockville “aided and abetted” a fellow Richard Montgomery High School student who opened fire at the Rockville Metro station and wounded two people in May, prosecutors said during opening statements in the trial of Tavares D. Harris on Monday in Montgomery County Circuit Court in Rockville, The Gazette reported.

Harris, of the 700 block of Fallsgrove Drive, is accused of helping to plot the shooting and providing the gun used by Kevin Q. Nguyen, 17, of the 300 block of North Van Buren Street.

Police said Nguyen shot a then 16-year-old boy at the station's east entrance. Nguyen and the victim had fought shortly after school let out and the 16-year-old had told Nguyen he was going to rob him, police said, The Washington Examiner reported.

An 18-year-old woman bystander also was shot. Both the boy and the woman suffered non-life-threatening wounds.

Click here to read more from The Examiner.

Harris and Nguyen face two counts each of attempted first- and second-degree murder and one count each of using a handgun in a violent crime and conspiracy to commit murder, The Gazette reported.

As of Monday, both were being tried as adults, The Gazette reported.

Harris’s defense attorneys and the prosecution agree on two things, The Gazette reported: First, Nguyen was the triggerman. Second, Harris and Nguyen are seen on YouTube videos entered into evidence posing with the gun used in the shooting.

Harris’s attorney said Monday that Nguyen planned the shooting himself, The Gazette reported.

Click here to read more from The Gazette.

The shooting occurred just after 2:30 p.m. on May 18, as the Friday afternoon rush at the station in Rockville Town Center was beginning. Police captured Nguyen at the Shell gas station on North Washington Street in Rockville Town Center eight minutes after the first report of the incident. Harris was taken into custody on Elmcroft Boulevard in King Farm a short time later.

Nguyen is scheduled to go on trial Dec. 17, according to online court records.

Click here for coverage of the shooting by Rockville Patch.