Suspect arrested after man found bound, beaten inside Logan Circle condo

A suspect has been arrested more than a month after a man was brutally killed in a condo near D.C.’s Logan Circle, police say.

Sayed Hammad Hussein was found bound, beaten and set on fire inside his condo on Rhode Island Avenue NW on Feb. 11, D.C. police said. He was 40.

On Monday, police arrested 36-year-old Rico Barnes, of Northwest, and charged him with first-degree murder while armed.

Hussein let Barnes and another man into his apartment building during the early morning hours on Feb. 11, according to an affidavit. Investigators said Hussein didn’t know Barnes or the other man.

The suspects then beat Hussein outside his condo before going inside and attacking him, according to the affidavit. Hussein’s hands and feet were bound by neck ties, police said.

“This is a very tragic case. In this case, like I said, Mr. Hussein was literally just going out to get food and coming back home, and, you know. They knocked on the door, he let them inside. I’m sure he probably thought it was somebody else from the building and things like that,” Interim Police Chief Jeffrey Carroll said. “This is a heinous crime as far as the injuries that he was inflicted upon him. It’s just terrible.”

The 27-page affidavit includes photos of the suspects leaving the building with a bicycle and bags of items taken from Hussein’s condo.

Detectives tracked the suspects’ movements through the city that night and found photos of the men on Metro and walking down a street.

Investigators believe the suspects chose Hussein at random as he walked back to his building that morning after buying food.

Barnes is being held in jail without bond.

Police said the second suspect in the killing has been identified and is in custody, but he has not yet been charged in Hussein’s killing.