Left: Murder suspect Emmanuel L. Simmonds. Right: Victim Tenneson Leslie (Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office)
Emmanuel L. Simmonds was just 16 years old when he was riding an escalator down to a Metro station in Maryland during rush hour in May 2023.
At some point during the trip down to the Wheaton Station in Silver Spring shortly before 6 p.m. May 18, a group of teens traveling with Simmonds got into a fight with another group that included 18-year-old Tenneson Leslie.
Simmonds pulled out a gun. Leslie ran away and Simmonds fired one shot into the back of Leslie’s head.
Shocked subway riders scattered and Simmonds hopped on a train to flee the scene. Simmonds then handed the gun to his 14-year-old co-defendant, who threw the gun on the ground before getting off the train. First responders found Leslie lying face-first on the platform and rushed him to the hospital where doctors pronounced him dead.
Surveillance video showed Simmonds wearing a hooded sweatshirt that said “Bad Habits But Good Intentions” at the time of the shooting. Using that description, officers located and arrested Simmonds about a week later.
On Friday, a Montgomery County judge sentenced Simmonds, now 17, to life in prison with all but 35 years suspended, according to Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy.
“This was a shockingly brazen, callous act by a young offender. The defendant executed a young man on a crowded metro platform, not only claiming one innocent life but placing many other people at risk as there were other citizens, simply using the metro system, that easily could have been struck by a bullet,” McCarthy said in a statement after Simmonds pled guilty in December to first-degree murder.
The 14-year-old boy was charged in juvenile court. His case remains ongoing.
Simmonds will be admitted to the Patuxent Youthful Offenders program while incarcerated. The program is staffed by clinicians and custodial personnel who deliver therapeutic services to incarcerated people. Simmonds’ attorney Paul Zmuda told The Washington Post that his client is sorry for what happened and needs help.
“He’s a 16-year-old struggling with a lot of learning disabilities and mental health issues,” Zmuda told the newspaper. “It’s a sad story for everybody involved.”
According to cops, Simmonds was previously arrested for armed robbery in 2022. He also was a suspect in another armed robbery in April 2023 and a sexual assault about two weeks before the murder, documents say.
The Post reported Leslie had dealt with tragedy for most of his life. His mother died after a prolonged illness in 2015 and his father was murdered four years later in the Bahamas. Leslie was just a couple of weeks from graduating high school, according to a GoFundMe.
“Due to his mother’s rapid decline from illness he lived with his grandmother from a very young age. He was an excellent singer and excelled in any thing he put his mind to,” the fundraiser said.
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