Man found fatally shot in his car in Temple Hills may have been road rage victim

A man found shot and killed in his car in Temple Hills on Friday as he went to pick up his 7-year-old daughter may have been a road rage victim, his family says they were told.

Darian Ragland, of Brandywine, was found killed in his car just after 4:30 p.m. Friday in the 4700 block of Branch Avenue. He was 39 and worked as a contractor for Metro.

He was the third son his mother, Judy Ragland, tragically lost, she told News4.

“God knows I don’t know how I’m going to do this. It’s going to be very hard,” she said.

She was surrounded by the love of her family as she grieves the loss of her son.

“I couldn’t understand. So, I had texted my son, but he never texted back, and he generally texts right back,” she said.

He was on his way to pick up his child from aftercare but never made it. His mom said she was told by detectives that he may have been a road rage victim, but the investigation is ongoing. No arrest has been made.

“He didn’t hurt nobody. He loved his daughter. All he wanted to do was raise her daughter, and he was a good son to me. He helped me around this house,” Judy Ragland said.

She said her son had left his job installing wraps on buses and trains. Photos taken on the day he died show him at work. His boss told the family he was a mentor and leader.

“He has a beautiful personality. Everybody loved him. That’s why his boss came by to see me on yesterday. He said his company where he worked at, everybody’s devastated,” his mother said.

Police are offering $25,000 in reward money for help solving the case.

“I just want justice. I want justice to be served because as I said, he didn’t deserve this,” his mother said.

Her grief was amplified because all her three of her sons are now gone. One was killed by a drunk driver in 2002, and the other was shot in 2011. Both were in their 20s.

“I can’t – I can’t make sense of it. And that’s my last child. I have three sons. I don’t have no more children now,” she said.

“You do everything right. You have the resources. You have the knowledge. But it still is not enough to save you. Then what’s the answer?” the film, “Listen to Me,” on Black maternal health, asks. News4’s Jummy Olabanji spoke with two of the three women whose stories are told in the documentary. The third, who also was doctor, died after giving birth.