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D.C. Man Arrested in Murder of Transgender Woman

Police say Edgar Arrington shot 28-year-old Dream Johnson multiple times in a July attack that may qualify as a hate crime.

By on September 21, 2025

Illustration: filo via iStockphoto
Illustration: filo via iStockphoto

Edgar Arrington was arrested and appeared in D.C. Superior Court on September 18, where Magistrate Judge Heide Herrmann found probable cause that he committed first-degree murder while armed in the July 5 shooting of 28-year-old transgender woman Dream Johnson.

Herrmann also approved a hate crime enhancement, allowing prosecutors to argue that Arrington’s actions were driven, at least in part, by hostility to Johnson’s gender identity. She ordered the 38-year-old held without bond pending a preliminary hearing before Judge Danya Dayson on October 7.

According to court documents, Arrington, who did not know Johnson before the shooting, ridiculed her for being transgender as she walked past him on the sidewalk in the 2000 block of Benning Road NE, in the Carver/Langston neighborhood.

Arrington allegedly harassed Johnson by shouting anti-gay and transphobic slurs before pulling a gun from his clothing and shooting the unarmed woman multiple times.

Police were flagged down around 12:51 a.m., according to WTTG FOX 5 DC, and found Johnson unconscious. She was taken to a local hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Police did not immediately identify a suspect. After a three-month investigation, aided by tips and FBI technology, authorities named Arrington, and U.S. marshals arrested him in Rowan County, North Carolina, earlier this week.

Johnson’s family told WTTG they believed her murder was a hate crime, saying the killer seemed motivated by animus toward her. Investigators noted she suffered three chest wounds and one to the right shoulder, describing the shooting as “overkill” that suggested deep hatred.

“You ain’t just shoot once,” Johnson’s aunt, Vanna Terrell, said. “You emptied the clip, because that’s what [police] said.”

Terrell told WTOP her family has been devastated by Johnson’s death. She said her sister struggles to work and focus, while Johnson’s younger siblings are “traumatized” because classmates still talk about the murder.

She remembers her niece as “vibrant” and “full of life.”

“Dream just loved to live,” Terrell said. “If you’ve seen Dream, Dream always had a smile on her face.”

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