Two men have been indicted in the 2002 slaying of hip hop artist Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC, which until now had been one of New York City’s most notorious unsolved killings, authorities announced Monday.
The suspects were identified as Ronald Washington and Karl Jordan, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Seth DuCharme said at a news conference.
Jason “Jay” Mizell, known professionally as Jam Master Jay, was a member of 1980s hip-hop sensation Run-DMC with Joseph “Run” Simmons and Darryl “DMC” McDaniel.
Their hits included “It’s Tricky,” “Christmas in Hollis” and the Aerosmith remake collaboration “Walk This Way.”
“For the crime of murder, the passage of time offers you no escape.
The office has a long, proud tradition of doing cold case murders and working with our local partners and federal partners, and we don’t give up on these cases,” DuCharme added.
Washington, who had reportedly been living on a couch at Jay’s home in the days before his death, was publicly named as a possible suspect or witness as far back as 2007. He is currently serving a federal prison sentence stemming from a string of robberies he committed while on the run from police after Jay’s death.
In court papers filed at the time, prosecutors alleged that Washington waved a handgun around and ordered people in Jay’s Queens recording studio to lie on the ground while another man killed him on Oct. 30, 2002.
Jay was shot once in the head with a .40-caliber bullet by a masked assailant at his studio in Hollis, the Queens neighborhood where he grew up, police said at the time.
He left behind a wife and three children.
Police identified at least four people in the studio with Jay, including the two-armed gunmen.
The city and Jay’s friends offered more than $60,000 in reward money, but witnesses refused to come forward and the case languished.
Jay’s acquaintance with Washington upset his family.
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