A jury in Alexandria has convicted a 19-year-old Woodbridge woman of involuntary manslaughter and assault and battery after a 40-year-old man died fleeing an attack at the Potomac Yard Metro station, struck by a departing train as he tried to escape. Jamaya Burch and a teenage co-defendant chased and assaulted James Lynt after approaching him near the station entrance on September 22, 2025, prosecutors said, in an attack that selected him at random.
Lynt died from injuries sustained after being struck by the train while attempting to escape his attackers, according to WUSA9. He was treated by Alexandria Fire Department paramedics and later by surgeons at George Washington University Hospital, but did not survive. Alexandria Commonwealth's Attorney Bryan Porter said the case involved a violent attack on a victim selected at random, describing it in a statement reported by The Alexandria Brief as “every citizen's nightmare: a violent attack on a victim selected at random, and resulting in his traumatic death.”
How the Chase Unfolded Inside the Station
Search warrant records from the initial investigation, obtained by ALXnow in September 2025, describe Lynt trying to escape his assailants by passing through the station's fare gates and forcing them shut behind him. The suspects reportedly pursued him onto a train car and back onto the platform before he fled onto the track bed, where he was struck. WUSA9's reporting confirms that Burch and the teen co-defendant chased Lynt around the station and that he climbed onto the tracks in his attempt to get away.
Metro Transit Police Detective Aaron France led the criminal investigation, according to the same Alexandria Brief report. Investigators identified and apprehended the two suspects after reviewing station surveillance video that captured the assault and the chase, footage made possible by the widespread CCTV coverage across Washington Metro platforms and entrances.
Separate Legal Tracks for Adult and Juvenile
Burch's teen co-defendant was adjudicated delinquent on charges of involuntary manslaughter and assault and battery in Alexandria Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court, per the juvenile court judge, ahead of Burch's circuit court trial. State juvenile confidentiality statutes restrict the release of further details about the co-defendant's case, leaving Burch's own sentencing as the next public milestone in the matter.
Burch, tried as an adult in Alexandria Circuit Court, was convicted by a jury of involuntary manslaughter, a felony, and assault and battery, a misdemeanor. Under Virginia law, involuntary manslaughter is a Class 5 felony carrying a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, while the assault and battery conviction, a Class 1 misdemeanor, carries a maximum of 12 months in jail. She is scheduled to be sentenced on November 5, 2026.
Chief Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Cathryn F. Evans and Senior Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Antwoine L. Coleman Jr. prosecuted the case for the Commonwealth's Attorney's office. Porter thanked jurors and Metro Transit Police investigators following the verdict.
A New Station Built for Heavy Commuter Traffic
The attack took place at a station still relatively new to the Washington Metro system. Potomac Yard opened on May 19, 2023, as the system's 98th station and its second infill station, built between existing stops to serve the Blue and Yellow lines in Alexandria, according to WMATA. The $370 million project was designed as a major transit hub for a growing commercial and residential corridor in Northern Virginia, with assessments at the time projecting it would shift roughly 6,700 daily vehicle trips off regional roads, per Arup, the engineering firm involved in its design.
That high-volume, heavily trafficked design is part of what makes the randomness of the attack on Lynt so unsettling to those following the case. He had no apparent connection to Burch or the teen co-defendant before they approached and argued with him near the station entrance, according to court proceedings described by WUSA9.
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