A man who has worked as a violence interrupter in the District was charged with murder in connection with a deadly 2023 nightclub shooting in Northeast.
Metropolitan Police said they took Cotey Wynn, 44, of Northeast, into custody on first-degree murder charges Friday after he was linked to the slaying of 31-year-old Blake Bozeman in September 2023.
Wynn had been working as violence interrupter for the Cure the Streets program that is run by D.C.’s Office of Attorney General.
“These allegations are deeply troubling, and our hearts go out to the victims, their families and their loved ones,” the OAG’s office told WRC-TV in a statement. “Our office had no knowledge of Cotey’s potential involvement in any events related to his arrest.”
Wynn spent 10 years behind bars from 2004-2014 after being convicted of gun possession and obstruction of justice.
He returned to D.C.’s Trinidad neighborhood after getting out of prison, and joined the Cure the Streets team in 2018.
Antwan Shelton, 41, of Southeast, was also arrested last Friday after being tied to the shooting that wounded three and killed Bozeman, a Baltimore native and former college basketball star at Morgan State University.
According to court documents, Shelton was the triggerman but Wynn helped plan the killing at the CRU Hookah Lounge on H Street Northeast.
The filing said the two suspects met at CRU late on Sept. 23, 2023.
The suspects briefly stepped out to Wynn’s SUV before going back into the lounge, where police said Shelton opened fire on Bozeman after he walked past him on a stairwell.
The wounded Bozeman stumbled out of the club and collapsed on the hood of a parked car, according to police. Two men and a woman were also hit by the gunfire, but survived.
Court documents said Wynn never reacted when Shelton unloaded the hail of bullets, despite a bar full of 50 people ducking for cover as shots rang out.
After the shooting, the filing said Wynn gestured to Shelton about which exit they should take to flee the scene. They both left the bar and drove off in Wynn’s SUV.
Police connected Wynn to the killing through witness testimony, as well as a phone and hoodie found in Wynn’s apartment that he allegedly wore the night of the shooting.
Both Wynn and Shelton are in jail. They are scheduled to return to court April 1.
Wynn isn’t the first Cure the Streets violence interrupter linked to a major crime.
Last fall, 26-year-old Justin Robinson was shot and killed by police after authorities said he tried to grab an officer’s gun out of his hand.
Robinson was briefly knocked unconscious last Sept. 1 after crashing his car into a McDonald’s restaurant in Southeast.
Police body camera footage showed officers order Robinson, who had a gun resting in his lap, to put his hands up once he woke up while still in the driver’s seat.
Robinson appears to put one hand up but keeps his other hand at his side.
Police repeat commands to keep his hand away from the gun, and one officer appears to try and grab the gun by reaching through the window.
Robinson can be seen gripping the barrel of the officer’s pistol on the body camera footage.
Police opened fire moments later, killing Robinson. He was previously convicted of weapons assault in 2018.
