Montgomery County police have arrested an 18-year-old North Potomac man in connection with the April shooting death of a Gaithersburg resident and the theft of the victim’s vehicle.
According to the Montgomery County Department of Police, detectives with the Major Crimes Division’s Homicide Unit arrested Earl Deangelo Charles Jr. in connection with the April 9, 2026, killing of Christopher Gove, 32, of Gaithersburg.
Police said officers responded at approximately 5:55 a.m. on April 9 to the 12500 block of Carrington Hill Drive in Gaithersburg for a reported shooting. Officers found Gove inside the residence suffering from at least one gunshot wound. Montgomery County Fire and Rescue personnel transported him to a hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.
Investigators recovered a shell casing in the driveway, and witnesses reported seeing a black vehicle leaving the area. Shortly afterward, officers responded to a crash near Key West Avenue and Darnestown Road, where they found a black Toyota Highlander registered to Gove’s address abandoned with the driver’s side door open.
Major Crimes detectives executed a search warrant on the vehicle and recovered evidence. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner later determined Gove died from gunshot wounds and ruled his death a homicide.
According to police, forensic testing linked the shell casing recovered at the scene to a firearm recovered during a separate investigation in Prince George’s County. Detectives learned that Charles had previously been arrested in connection with the investigation in which the firearm was recovered.
Detectives subsequently connected Charles to both the homicide and the armed carjacking. On June 26, investigators obtained an arrest warrant charging him with first-degree murder, use of a firearm in the commission of a crime of violence, and armed carjacking.
Members of the Montgomery County Police Task Force assigned to the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force arrested Charles in Prince George’s County on Monday, June 29. He is being held at the Montgomery County Central Processing Unit pending a bond hearing.
