4th suspect arrested in double homicide of Germantown teens

WASHINGTON — A fourth suspect in the double homicide of two Germantown teens has been arrested and charged Friday, police said.

Shadi Adi Najjar, 17, (left) and Artem S. Ziberov, 18, were fatally shot on the eve of their graduation from Northwest High School in Germantown, Maryland. (Courtesy of NBC News)

This year on June 5, 17-year-old Shadi Adi Najjar and 18-year-old Artem S. Ziberov were both shot and killed in a blue Honda Civic in the 8200 block of Gallery Court in Montgomery Village, hours before they were set to graduate.

Three men were arrested on June 17 and charged with first-degree murder, among other charges:

Edgar Garcia-Gaona, 24, of Gaithersburg;
Roger Garcia, 19, of Germantown; and
Jose Ovilson Canales-Yanez, 25, of Gaithersburg.

A fourth suspect, Rony Alexander Galicia, 25, of Germantown, was arrested around 11:30 a.m. Friday, Montgomery County police said in a news release. He faces similar charges to the other suspects, and he was stopped and arrested while traveling in a vehicle in Rockville.

Najjar’s friend had told police the 17-year-old may have been involved in a drug-related robbery late last year or earlier this year.

Montgomery County police Chief Tom Manger also said in a press conference earlier this year that the then-girlfriend of one of the men arrested and charged for the deaths of Najjar and Ziberov had reported a stolen iPad. In the report, she claimed a blue Honda Civic had approached her while she was walking and someone in the car grabbed her iPad and dragged her for about 50 feet.

Najjar’s father denied the allegations.

“You know, the lady, she’s accusing my son of stealing. My son doesn’t need [anything]. He has everything,” the father said. “So he doesn’t need an iPad.”

“This is a big lie,” he said.

Police said bond information for Galicia is not yet available.