Two men charged in connection with the disappearance and presumed killing of 25-year-old Chyna Crawford are due in D.C. Superior Court this week, a key step in a case that has gripped her Southwest neighborhood since she vanished in October 2023. What began as a missing person search has shifted into a sprawling homicide case, with multiple defendants, dozens of counts and detectives still working to trace Crawford’s final movements and the fate of her missing car more than a year later.
Arrests and charges
The Metropolitan Police Department says 31-year-old Bjarni Cooper was arrested by U.S. Marshals on Jan. 29 and is charged with first-degree murder-felony murder, conspiracy, armed carjacking and armed robbery. Investigators say 32-year-old Lashawn Washington, arrested on March 26, 2024, now faces first-degree murder, kidnapping and obstruction charges in the same investigation. As detailed by MPD, the case remains active under CCN 23176298.
Local outlets first covered Washington’s 2024 arrest when detectives publicly reclassified the case as a homicide investigation, a turning point that signaled what police believed had happened to Crawford. At the time, Fox5 reported on the early set of charges and the family’s stunned reaction.
What the indictment says
A recently unsealed indictment reviewed by The Washington Post runs to roughly 126 counts. Prosecutors allege Crawford was kidnapped from her Southwest apartment and fatally shot during a robbery. According to the Post’s summary of the court documents, three people confronted Crawford on Oct. 24, 2023, forced her into the front passenger seat of a Mercedes, then went back and burglarized her home.
The indictment says keys, phones and designer items were taken from the apartment and later split up among alleged co-conspirators, a detail prosecutors point to as part of the broader robbery scheme.
Family response and court movement
Crawford’s relatives have said the latest round of charges brings a mix of relief and fresh grief. Her brother told The Washington Post that when prosecutors announced the first indictment he “realized then she was no longer with us,” a blunt reality that had hovered over the family since her disappearance.
According to the Post, Cooper’s attorney declined to comment. At least one co-defendant named in the indictment is still in federal custody and has not yet been brought to D.C. Superior Court, a reminder that even basic scheduling in a case this large can move slowly.
Legal status and next steps
Under the District’s criminal code, first-degree murder includes killings that occur during other serious crimes such as kidnapping or robbery, which is how prosecutors have structured several counts in this case. Those definitions and the framework for felony murder prosecutions are laid out in D.C. law, the same statutory backdrop now guiding the charges in Superior Court.
MPD is asking anyone with information to call 202-727-9099 or text tips to 50411, and the department says a reward of up to $25,000 may be available for information that leads to an arrest and conviction. MPD
tracked the earlier update when the second arrest became public in February, and local outlets continue to follow every new filing and hearing as prosecutors and defense attorneys brace for what could be a long pretrial stretch. WUSA9 recently walked through the new court activity and charges, noting the upcoming arraignments and the ongoing investigation.
