A 49-year-old man died by suicide Thursday at a home on 48th Street Northwest in Washington, D.C., after police responding to a reported burglary found the situation had escalated. The man has been identified as Mostafa Khermiche, and neighbors say the house had been at the center of months of complaints over an alleged squatter living there with her young daughter.
Officers initially went to the home for a reported burglary before the call turned into a shooting, according to FOX 5 DC. Neighbors told the station that a woman and her 8-year-old daughter had been living in the home since June without the knowledge or permission of the property's owner, who lives overseas. The outlet also reported that the woman living in the home was reportedly livestreaming at the time.
A Pattern of Police Calls Stretching Back Months
Court records cited by the station show police had received more than 25 calls for service at the address since June, a volume that points to a prolonged and escalating dispute at the property. An advisory neighborhood commissioner said police had been called to the address multiple times in recent months, including for a separate shooting reported earlier in the week, according to the same report.
The same records indicate Khermiche had a court appearance just two days before the shooting, tied to a felony domestic violence case documented as an assault on a police officer. The station's reporting does not specify the exact date or time the shooting occurred.
Landlord-Tenant Case Stalled Until November
ANC Commissioner J.P. Szymkowicz said a landlord-tenant court hearing connected to the property had not been scheduled until November, despite the underlying case potentially having been filed back in June. “There's no hearing until November,” Szymkowicz said, according to the station's reporting — a gap that left the disputed occupancy unresolved for months while complaints piled up.
Under District rules, the Office of the Tenant Advocate notes that any eviction must be carried out pursuant to a court order and must be scheduled and supervised by the U.S. Marshals Service, a process that can stretch out the time between a legal ruling and an occupant's actual removal. Separately, District code addressing cases filed after December 31, 2025, provides that when an alleged act would constitute a dangerous crime or crime of violence, and was not committed in self-defense, a housing provider must serve a 10-day notice to vacate after considering reasonable means to preserve housing for non-offending occupants, according to the D.C. Council code.
Other DC Disputes Highlight Slow-Moving Remedies
The Northwest D.C. shooting follows other recent District cases in which alleged squatters and disputed occupants have forced property owners into lengthy legal fights. At an apartment building on Q Street SE, people who did not live there were accused of buying and selling drugs in the halls and breaking into vacant units, according to the Washington Post. An advisory neighborhood commissioner said he had also heard concerns about people attempting to douse the floors with gasoline and set a fire at that building, the Post reported. The attorney general's office alleged that conditions at the property violated the District's Nuisance Act and that its owners had failed to secure the building to stop crime, per the same report.
In another case, a D.C. judge ruled on Dec. 11, 2025, that a woman named Shadija Romero did not have tenancy rights and sided with homeowner Rochanne Douglas, according to WJLA. Douglas told the station she had rented part of her home through Airbnb before Romero remained in the property after her reservation ended, and that Romero argued her more-than-30-day stay entitled her to tenant protections under District law — forcing Douglas into housing court rather than having the guest removed for trespassing. Mayor Muriel Bowser has proposed legislation, the Illegal Occupancy Enforcement Act, that would clarify that short-term-rental guests have no lawful right to remain after their reservation ends, WJLA reported.
