P.G. police make arrest in slaying of high school student

Authorities have charged a 20-year-old Maryland man in the fatal shooting of Marckel Ross, one of six county school students slain this school year.

After alluding last week to future arrests pending in the case, Prince George's County police announced Monday that Travon Bennett, who has been in jail since November when he was arrested in connection with a robbery, is being charged in Ross‘ death.

Ross, 18, was fatally shot as he walked to Central High School on the morning of Sept. 11.

Mr. Bennett, of Bryans Road, is also currently facing charges of attempted first-degree murder from a robbery that occurred in May as well as two other robberies that happened in September and October. Police arrested Mr. Bennett immediately after the Oct. 31 robbery, which occurred in the 5400 block of Abdul Street in Capitol Heights — just around the block from where Ross was gunned down.

The three other robberies occurred in the Capitol Heights neighborhood where Ross was killed, said John Erzen, spokesman for the Prince George’s County State’s Attorney’s Office.

A gun that was recovered as evidence in one of the three robberies was linked to Ross‘ killing, officials with knowledge of the case said. Court records indicate that a .38 caliber Colt revolver and a black pellet pistol were recovered from inside a home where Mr. Bennett was hanging out when he was arrested for the Oct. 31 robbery, in which a man was robbed at gunpoint by several men for two boxes of cigarettes.

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