Diego Gomez-Martinez, 16 and a student at Bladensburg High School, died after a gunshot wound sustained during a gathering of teenagers in an apartment in the 4200 block of 58th Avenue in Bladensburg, Maryland. The shooting happened on Thursday evening, September 22, 2016; he was taken to a nearby hospital and died early the following morning. Initial statements included an account that Diego accidentally shot himself while handling the firearm, but investigators later found that unlikely because he was right-handed and could not have caused the wound himself.

A witness told police they saw 17-year-old Erik Lopez holding a handgun immediately after the gun went off; the witness said Lopez then put the gun into a black bookbag and fled. The Prince George’s County Police Department Homicide Unit arrested Erik Steve Lopez of Landover Hills and charged him as an adult with manslaughter and a weapons offense, held on $200,000 bond. Friends and neighbors described Diego as respectful and fond of basketball; his stepfather said he had never seen Diego with a gun.