Boyfriend charged with killing police officer in their Maryland home nearly 30 years ago

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GAITHERSBURG, Md. (AP) — A man charged this week with fatally shooting a police officer in her Maryland home nearly 30 years ago was the officer's live-in boyfriend and had blamed her 1995 killing on a burglary, police officials said Wednesday.

Amir Jalil Ali, who was arrested Tuesday on a first-degree murder charge, initially was charged in 1995 with killing 24-year-old Denna Fredericka Campbell, an officer for the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, D.C. But the charges against him were dropped two months later by prosecutors in Maryland's Montgomery County.

Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy said he can't explain why the charges were dropped in 1995, when his office was led by a predecessor.

“I was not privy to, nor do I know, what the conversation was regarding why the charges were dropped at that point in time,” McCarthy told reporters at a news conference.

Campbell, a four-year MPD veteran, was shot five times in her Silver Spring, Maryland, apartment. Her department-issued handgun was missing and hasn’t been found.

“While this arrest won't erase the pain of losing Denna, we hope that it brings some resolution and sense of peace to everyone involved,” Montgomery County Police Chief Marc Yamada said.

Ali, 62, of Laurel, Maryland, was known as Kenneth Burnell Wonsom at the time of the killing. He legally changed his name in 2021, police said.

Ali told investigators that he had left their apartment after 3 a.m. on Sept. 16, 1995, to go to a store and found her body when he returned home, a police report says. Ali called 911 to report a burglary and said his girlfriend had been shot, according to the report.

Officers who worked with Campbell told police detectives that she was afraid of her boyfriend and had been sleeping with her department-issued weapon under her pillow, the report says. Campbell said she planned to leave Ali, adding, “If I don't show up for work Saturday, you'll know he killed me and buried me somewhere,” one of those colleagues told investigators.

Detectives didn't find any evidence of a burglary at Campbell's apartment and believe she was shot with her own gun, according to the report. Based on DNA evidence, investigators believe Ali was bleeding after an altercation with Campbell.

Ali remained jailed on Wednesday pending a bond hearing in a county court. Online court records don't identify an attorney representing him.

Montgomery County Police Detective Paula Hamill said she spoke to Campbell's father on Tuesday and told him about Ali's arrest.

“And the only words that he could get out were ‘thank God,’” Hamill added. “It was a long time coming.”

MPD Executive Assistant Chief Andre Wright said Campbell had a promising career ahead of her but had already proved herself to be “a hero in the community she served."

“In 1993, she selflessly pulled four victims out of a burning van on Pennsylvania Avenue,” Wright said. “Those actions proved Officer Campbell was ready to place the safety of those in the community above herself.”