D.C. Carjacker Who Killed Former Trump Official Had Criminal History as Attorney General Shifts Blame

Mike Gill dies
Mike Gill/LinkedIn
Olivia Rondeau

The carjacker who claimed the lives of former Trump administration official Mike Gill and another innocent man in Washington, DC, last week had multiple prior arrests in a disturbing pattern of criminal behavior.

Artell Cunningham, 28, was fatally shot by Maryland cops early last Tuesday morning after he gunned down Gill, 56, and Alberto “AJ” Vasquez Jr, 35, in two separate D.C. carjackings on Monday evening. 

Gill, a father of three, was shot in front of his wife, who rushed to hold his hand as he lay bleeding on the ground with one foot still inside his car. He remained alive at the scene, but died at the hospital on Saturday.

“His sudden departure has left a void in our lives that can never be filled,” Kristina Gill said in a statement obtained by NBC News, calling Mike “not only a devoted husband and father but also a cherished son, brother, and friend.”

He served as chief operating officer of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission during former President Donald Trump’s tenure.

“Over the course of his remarkable life, Mike brought people together and made them feel included, supported, and loved,” Kristina said. “His heart was evident in everything he did, as demonstrated by his mentorship and deep friendships with those who worked with him professionally”

“Above all, Mike spoke with pride and love about his family, especially our children, Sean, Brian, and Annika.”

After shooting Gill, Cunningham continued his campaign of terror with a failed attempt to carjack another nearby motorist before moving on to Vasquez, taking his car after fatally shooting him. 

“Everyone always remembers AJ. Everyone always remembers him not matter what the scene was,” his mother, Antoinette Walker said to Fox 5 DC. “With the amount of carjackings and just instances of this magnitude, now it’s touched our doorstep. It’s not right.”

Vasquez’s father, Jacob Walker, highlighted the tremendous loss that his son’s two young daughters have experienced, and said he wished he could tell him how much he loves him. 

“His daughters will never get that chance to talk to him again. No weddings, no nothing. He’s 35 years old,” Walker said, before going on to grieve how gun violence “has just become normalized in a sense for America.”

The mourning father added that he would have “never had expectations that I would be…having to bury my child over something as senseless as a carjacking.”

Cunningham’s crimes that night also included “bashing” a taxi driver in the head with his gun and stealing his car in University Park, Maryland later in the evening at 11:23 p.m., reports the Daily Mail. 

At around 2:30 a.m., the career criminal shot through the windshield of a Maryland State Police trooper’s car, and sprayed a D.C. cop’s car with bullets in a drive-by shooting at around 3:00 a.m.

The New Carrollton Police Department finally managed to track the stolen car to a nearby laundromat, where Cunningham approached them while brandishing two handguns before they shot him. 

He later died in the hospital. 

Questions have arisen over how the violent man was free to accomplish these monstrous acts, with Metropolitan Police Department Assistant Chief Jeffery Carroll saying Cunningham had a criminal history and appeared to have been going through a mental health crisis.

Arrest records obtained by the Daily Mail indicate that Cunningham was arrested on April 8, 2021, for disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, obstructing officers, and failing to obey police instructions.

On September 24, 2022, he was arrested again for driving without insurance and fleeing the scene of a car accident he had been involved in.

In a social media post viewed by the Daily Mail, Cunningham was memorialized by his sister, Atia La’Shae. 

The woman reportedly replied “yes, very much so” to a friend who commented that “he will be missed.”

D.C. residents have continuously voiced their concerns with the uptick in violent carjackings as city officials haven’t done enough to stop it. 

Later on the same Tuesday that Cunningham was shot by police, Washington, DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb told residents that his office cannot “prosecute and arrest our way out” of the skyrocketing crime.

The comment was made during a panel on “understand juvenile carjacking,” where Schwalb also told his constituents: “We as a city and a community need to be much more focused on prevention and surrounding young people and their families with resources if we want to be safer in the long run.”

“We cannot prosecute and arrest our way out of it,” he said.

Journalist John Hasson pointed out that carjackings in D.C. have “nearly doubled” since Schwalb took office, citing Metropolitan Police Department data.

Jonathan Turley, a legal analyst and Shapiro Chair of Public Interest Law at George Washington University, wrote on X: “I have lived in and around D.C. since the 70s. Yet, I admit that I now avoid walking around the city out of concern over the crime.”

The carjacking panel was chaired by Councilman Charles Allen, who is facing a recall effort due to the rising crime. 

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