Nyah Hairston was just minutes from home in Maryland when someone shot her in her car on the Capital Beltway last year and left her to die. She was 20 years old.
For a year-and-a-half, her family pleaded for answers about who shot her and why.
Hairston was the victim of a road rage shooting, Maryland State Police and the FBI announced Thursday. Dominec Proctor, 28 of Glenn Dale, was charged with first-degree murder.
“An innocent 20-year-old driving home from work should not be shot on 495 and lose her life. She should still be here with her family,” FBI Special Agent in Charge Jimmy Paul said at a news conference.
Hairston’s mother cried as she thanked police and spoke about her family’s heartbreak.
“She finally has justice, but the pain is there and it will never go away,” Carla Mills said.
Hairston was driving home from work when she was shot the night of May 3, 2024. State police found her gray Nissan Versa in a ditch on southbound I-495 near Landover Road at about 10:45 p.m. Troopers broke a window to try to help her, but she was unresponsive. She was taken to the University of Maryland Capital Region Trauma Center, where she died.
Hairston was upbeat, bubbly and dreamed of buying a home, traveling internationally and having a big family, her mother and sister, Asia Rogers, said. She worked as a beautician and for UPS and Amazon.
Investigators identified Proctor as the suspected shooter in part by using cellphone data, Paul said. The FBI’s Cellular Analysis Survey Team “helped pinpoint phones in the area at the time Nyah was killed,” he said. State police also said media coverage of Hairston’s death helped lead to an arrest.
Proctor already was being held without bond in Virginia on unrelated charges, investigators said.
Hairston’s mother said she warned her kids to beware of dangerous drivers.
“I used to teach her and her sister, if you’re getting over, use your blinker and wait a while because people in this area are really crazy,” Mills said. “I don’t know what we as a community can do to stop this, but something must be done.”
Paul asked drivers to protect human life.
“Nothing that happens on the highways is justified by violence. Take a moment, take a breath, pause,” he said.
2 more families are still looking for answers after road rage killings in Maryland
State police are still investigating two more deadly road rage shootings in recent years.
Charles Harrison Marks IV, of Pasadena, was shot and killed on I-95 in Howard County on Jan. 30, 2022. He was driving a white cargo van north near Route 100 when someone shot him. He was 42.
Delonte Hicks, of D.C., was shot and killed as he drove a tow truck in Prince George’s County on March 19, 2022. He was headed east on Route 50 at Route 410.
Anyone with potentially relevant information is asked to contact police. A reward of $60,000 is available.
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