911 call led to arrests in Popeyes shooting

Nearly three months after Keith Jamar Truesdale was fatally shot at a Woodbridge Popeyes restaurant, a 911 call led police to three suspects in his murder, according to court testimony Wednesday.

The caller said his name was Andre and he was wanted for murder.

In the 911 call, made on April 10, the caller said he was involved in the Jan. 22 shooting death of Truesdale, 23, who was killed during a failed robbery at the restaurant in the 13800 block of Smoketown Road in Woodbridge.

Hours later police found and arrested Andre Williams, 21, of 4721 Kellogg Drive in Dale City, near the 7-Eleven where the 911 call was made.

Williams first told police he didn't make the call and wasn't involved in the shooting, but later confessed, according to court testimony.

Williams told police that he and two other men, Daniel Lipscomb, 26, of 16028 Carroll Ave. in Woodbridge and James Carolina, 19, of 2923 Wren Court near Dumfries, planned the robbery that led to Truesdale's death.

Williams, Lipscomb and Carolina appeared in Prince William General District Court on Wednesday for a preliminary hearing on charges of murder, attempted robbery and use of a firearm in commission of a felony.

General District Court Judge Charles F. Sievers ruled that there is enough evidence to send those charges to a grand jury.

According to court testimony Wednesday, the three men met at a Bayview area apartment on Jan. 22 and worked out a plan to rob the Popeyes restaurant.

When they arrived at the restaurant around 11 p.m. two of the men, Williams and Carolina, entered the restaurant through an unlocked back door. One of the men had a gun and the other had a knife, witnesses said.

The men ordered Truesdale to open the safe in the restaurant office but Truesdale, who was filling in as store manager that night, did not have the combination and could not open it.

The would-be robbers then got angry, witnesses said, and the gunman fired one shot.

The bullet went through Truesdale's arm and then through his lungs and heart, killing him, according to an autopsy report.

The men then left the restaurant and fled in a waiting car driven by Lipscomb, police said.

Police did not have many leads on the shooting until the 911 call was made in April, prosecutors said.

Williams told police he made the call out of guilt,

according to court testimony.

"He said he needed to get it off his chest," Prince William County Police Detective William Burke, who interviewed Williams, testified. "His exact words, he said, it was eating him."

The charges against all three men will go before the grand jury on July 7. If the grand jury indicts them, a trial date will be set in Prince William Circuit Court.

Staff writer Amanda Stewart can be reached at 703-878-8014.