A D.C. woman was charged Friday with first-degree murder in the 2022 death of her 3-year-old daughter, who authorities said ingested her mother’s Percocet that was laced with fentanyl and had been left on the bed where the child was napping.
Washington, D.C
Mother charged with murder in fentanyl death of 3-year-old in D.C.
In court documents, authorities described desperate attempts to save Journey after her mother, 27-year-old Sasha McCoy, rushed her out of an apartment building on Stanton Road after finding her unresponsive and turning purple.
A crowd quickly gathered, and several people called 911 as a bystander began CPR. A 911 operator heard someone screaming, “Come on, Sasha,” according to an arrest affidavit filed in court. Police and paramedics were dispatched at 4:47 p.m., as bystanders, McCoy and Journey piled into a vehicle and sped off to the hospital.
A doctor pronounced her dead at 5:09 p.m.
In addition to murder, McCoy was charged with cruelty to children. At a hearing Friday, a D.C. Superior Court magistrate judge ordered McCoy detained and set a court date for March 8. McCoy’s attorney, Elizabeth Weller, declined to comment when reached Saturday.
In the court documents, prosecutors allege that McCoy intentionally and recklessly engaged “in conduct which created a grave risk of bodily injury to Journey McCoy.”
A spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office in D.C., which prosecutes adult felonies in the District, could not recall a previous case of a parent charged with murder in a child’s fentanyl overdose. Efforts to reach relatives of McCoy and Journey on Saturday were not successful.
Law enforcement authorities in the District and elsewhere have made targeting fentanyl a priority, noting the synthetic opioid is up to 100 times more powerful than morphine and up 50 times more potent than heroin. It is often used as a cheap filler hidden in other drugs.
Last year, D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) declared a public emergency over the opioid crisis, directing city agencies to track overdoses more efficiently and to help outreach teams reach those in need. Opioid overdose deaths last year far exceeded violent homicides in the District.
In 2022, a total of 19 people died in two separate mass casualty fentanyl overdoses in Northeast and Southwest Washington. Police made arrests in one of the incidents. Last year, police arrested more than a dozen people they linked to a cross-country fentanyl ring. They said that investigation began when a young mother in D.C. overdosed and died after taking a single Percocet pill laced with fentanyl.
The D.C. police department’s Special Victim Unit investigated Journey’s death. The initial autopsy, conducted the day after Journey died, revealed abrasions on Journey’s face that appeared to be from scratching, but no significant trauma. The autopsy report listed the cause her death as “pending.”
According to the arrest affidavit, McCoy told police at the hospital that she had fallen asleep in an apartment where she worked as a home health aide. She told police the man she cared for was bed-bound, but he was hospitalized at the time, the affidavit says. Two acquaintances disputed that McCoy had a job, according to the affidavit.
McCoy told police she had four children and, after taking a nap, she awoke to find two of them “messing” around in the refrigerator. She told police she checked on Sasha at least twice during her nap.
The final time she checked, McCoy told police she found Sasha in bed with “a lot of yellow mucus coming from her mouth, as if she was choking,” the affidavit says. She then rushed her daughter outside, and to the hospital.
Police said they returned with McCoy to the Stanton Road apartment. In the room where Sasha had been napping, police said in the affidavit, they found a queen-size bed with blue sheets and a burgundy blanket that had been pulled off the mattress. An open bag was on top of the bed with two round Percocet pills stamped “M” and half of an oval-shaped Xanax pill, according to the affidavit.
A child’s bottle was on the floor, along with a piece of oatmeal cake.
McCoy told police that she had seven Percocet pills, the affidavit says, although she wasn’t sure that was an accurate count. “When you’re used to taking them and having so many,” the affidavit quotes her as telling police, “you just pop’em, pop’em and pop’em.”
The mother then told police, according to the affidavit, that the pills police found on the bed are ones she may have dropped while picking up her unresponsive daughter. “I know how ya’all are gonna make it seems,” she told police, according to the affidavit. “It’s not how it seems. I dropped it right there when I picked my baby up.”
The affidavit says that toxicology tests revealed that two of the pills contained fentanyl. The D.C. medical examiner’s office eventually ruled that Journey had died of fentanyl intoxication.
The affidavit filed in Journey’s death says that investigators with D.C. Child Protective Services visited McCoy, who had four children, at least twice. In September 2020, the affidavit says, McCoy was alleged to have left two of her children alone when she left to smoke marijuana. The agency could not prove substance abuse but cited her for inadequate supervision, and, according to the affidavit, she agreed to not be under the influence of drugs while caring for her children.
In August 2021, the affidavit says, Child Protective Services referred McCoy to substance abuse treatment after a new baby was born going through withdrawal.
Keith L. Alexander contributed to this report.
Washington, D.C
Nonprofit sues the federal government over plans to paint Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool blue
With a blue sky above the Lincoln Memorial, people walk along the reflection pool in Washington, D.C., on June 9, 2023.
Jose Luis Magana/AP
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Jose Luis Magana/AP
A nonprofit is suing the National Park Service, the Department of the Interior and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum over the decision to resurface the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool at Washington D.C.’s National Mall, and to paint the pool’s basin blue.
The suit was filed Monday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF), an education and advocacy organization. In the suit, TCLF is asking a federal judge to halt the project, saying that the Trump administration failed to have the project reviewed federally, as is dictated by the National Historic Preservation Act.
President Trump revealed his plans for the pool do-over last month in “American flag blue,” saying that the project would take one week and $2 million, and that it would be completed in time for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence on July 4. A few days later on Truth Social, the president posted a fake image of himself and several of his administration officials in swimsuits, along with an unidentified woman in a gingham bikini, lounging in the water with the Washington National Monument at the rear. (Swimming in the reflecting pool is prohibited by federal law.)
In a YouTube video posted by the White House on April 23, Trump called the pool “filthy dirty” and said it “leaked like a sieve.” In that video, Trump said he was going to call three companies that he has worked with in the past – “all they do is swimming pools” – and say, “Give me a good price.”
The New York Times reported last Friday that the contract for the reflecting pool’s resurfacing was awarded in a $6.9 million no-bid contract to a company called Atlantic Industrial Coatings, which previously has never held any federal contracts.
An employee at the Atlantic Industrial Coatings confirmed in a telephone call on Monday that it has been contracted for this project, but referred all other questions to the Department of the Interior.
The Times reported on Monday that the final cost of the project could be upward of $13 million, per documents it says it has obtained. The Department of the Interior did not confirm the cost of the project, but wrote: “The contract price reflects the effort necessary to expedite the timeline of completing the leak prevention coating project—more people, more materials, more equipment and longer hours ahead of our 250th.”
In an unsigned statement emailed to NPR Monday afternoon, the Interior Department wrote: “The National Park Service chose the best company to expedite the repair of the iconic Reflecting Pool ahead of our 250 celebrations. The choice of American Flag Blue will enhance the visitor experience by making the pool reflect the grand Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument. NPS is also investing in a state-of-the-art ozone nanobubbler filtration system and will now have a dedicated crew who will maintain the grounds’ from wildlife. The Department is proud of the work being carried out by our Park Service to ensure this magical spot can be enjoyed for not only our 250th, but for many generations to come.”
Critics of the project, including TCLF, don’t share that vision – and are taking particular umbrage at the color.
“The reflecting pool should not be viewed in isolation; it is part of the larger ensemble of designed landscapes that comprise the National Mall,” Charles A. Birnbaum, the president and CEO of TCLF, said in a statement emailed to NPR Monday. “The design intent, to create a reflective surface that is subordinate, is fundamental to the solemn and hallowed visual and spatial connection between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. A blue-tinted basin is more appropriate to a resort or theme park.”
The National Park Service regularly cleans out algae, goose droppings and other detritus from the reflecting pool. The last major renovation of the reflecting pool, which included the installation of a new circulation and filtration system, took place during the Obama administration at a reported cost of $34 million.
Before founding TCLF in 2008, Birnbaum served for 15 years as the coordinator of the Historic Landscape Initiative for the National Park Service.
TCLF has another open lawsuit against the federal administration: it is one of eight cultural and architecture groups currently suing President Trump and the Kennedy Center board over the planned renovations of the complex, which are planned to start in July.
The memorial service will be held at the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial at 1 p.m.
WASHINGTON D.C. – A brave K-9 hero from the region will be honored at the Annual National Police K9 Memorial Service on Monday afternoon.
K-9 Knox died in the line of duty last year after he was accidentally hit by a police vehicle while pursuing a suspect involved in a stolen vehicle incident. He was a 3-year-old German shepherd and had served as a narcotics detection and patrol apprehension K-9 for the Roanoke Police Department since May 2023.
The memorial service will include a wreath-laying ceremony and will be held at the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, D.C., at 1 p.m. The event will open with a musical performance by Frank Ray, and the guest speaker will be Deputy Jared Hahn of the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office K-9 Unit.
The San Antonio Police Department Blue Line Choir will sing the national anthem, and the Emerald Society Pipes & Drums band will also perform.
Copyright 2026 by WSLS 10 – All rights reserved.
4 things to know about the weather:
- Shower chance Monday morning
- Cooler Monday
- Midweek rain chance
- Warmer end to the week
Showers continue to move west with a cold front tonight. There will be a break in the rain overnight, but showers return for the start of the day on Monday. Monday afternoon will be dry, but noticeably cooler.
Sunshine returns Tuesday, but the break in the rain will be short-lived with rain chances on Wednesday
Download the NBC Washington app on iOS and Android to check the weather radar on the go.
QuickCast
TONIGHT:
Showers early
Mostly cloudy
Wind: N 5-10 mph
LOW: Low 50s
MONDAY:
Morning shower chance
Wind: N 5-10 mph
HIGH: Upper 60s
TUESDAY:
Sunny
Wind: N 5-10 mph
HIGH: Near 70°
WEDNESDAY:
Shower chance
Wind: S 5-10 mph
Gusts at 20 mph
HIGH: Low 70s
SUNRISE: 5:59 a.m. SUNSET: 8:10 p.m.
AVERAGE HIGH: 75° AVERAGE LOW: 56°
Stay with Storm Team4 for the latest forecast. Download the NBC Washington app on iOS and Android to get severe weather alerts on your phone.
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