Gaithersburg man planned to exchange expensive jacket for gun before he was killed

An 18-year-old Gaithersburg man killed this month for an expensive jacket planned to exchange it for a gun before he was shot and killed, according to court records.

A suspect’s Instagram account showed that he had traded messages with the victim about exchanging a Moose Knuckles jacket and cash for a firearm — a photo shows a hand holding a Glock 17 semiautomatic handgun. Police also used phone and video surveillance to track down at least one of the suspects.

The Instagram account belongs to Kevin Perez-Fierro, 20, of Montgomery Village, who police charged with first-degree murder in the Jan. 2 homicide of 18-year-old Taeyon Malachi Prather.

Prather was found dead, with a gunshot wound to the head, in a parking lot by a community pool on Rolling Fork Way, a short walk from his home. Police also charged Perez-Fierro with armed robbery.

He “is presumed to be innocent of the charges and no one should be rushing to judgment at this early stage in this case,” said the Maryland Office of the Public Defender, which is representing Perez-Fierro.

Video captured at Prather’s home shows he left late that afternoon with an iPhone 15 and wearing an earbud and a Nike backpack. Investigators found none of those items when they found his body.

A 16-year-old suspect from Gaithersburg is also charged in Prather’s death and with armed robbery.

Prather’s mother told police her son left their home to sell the puffy black jacket shortly before 5 p.m. Home surveillance video shows him holding it as he left the house.

Many Moose Knuckles jackets sell for more than $1,000.

Cars captured on camera

Perez-Fierro, the court record said, was stopped by Montgomery County Police in October driving a 2015 Honda Odyssey. Surveillance video from Jan. 2 shows a gray Honda Odyssey pulling into the parking lot where police say Prather was killed at 4:51 p.m.

Nine minutes later, a white Ford Explorer pulled into the lot. Five minutes after that, surveillance video recorded several gunshots.

Police said records show that Perez-Fierro’s phone was near the shooting shortly before gunshots were fired, and traveled toward his home immediately after.