The Metropolitan Police Department said Robert Bellamy will be charged with second-degree murder in Thameka Harvell's death.

MPD's release says he will be charged pursuant to an indictment. WTOP says he was charged. An arrest on a grand jury indictment is the accusation those two accounts describe. It is not a conviction. Neither account names a motive, a weapon, or any relationship between Bellamy and Harvell. The medical examiner's "other contributing factors" are not listed.

The Metropolitan Police Department said Monday, Oct. 26, 2026, that members of the United States Marshals Service located and arrested 62-year-old Robert Bellamy of Northeast, D.C. The release says he will be charged pursuant to a D.C. Superior Court grand jury indictment with second degree murder. WTOP reported Tuesday, Oct. 27, that D.C. police announced Monday that Bellamy, 62, was arrested in the 2025 killing of Thameka Harvell and that he was charged with second-degree murder. Second degree, in the MPD release, and second-degree, in WTOP, are the same count. "Will be charged," in the release, and "was charged," in WTOP, are not the same tense. WTOP's story, by Anna Chen at 8:14 a.m., does not mention an indictment. The release does not give a court date.

The release says that on Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025, at approximately 5:02 a.m., Fifth District officers responded to the 600 block of Rhode Island Avenue, Northeast, for the report of an unconscious person. It says officers found an adult female, unconscious and not responsive, that DC Fire and EMS responded, and that after finding no signs consistent with life the victim was pronounced dead. It says she was taken to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, that in April 2025 the death was determined to be caused by a blunt force head injury with other contributing factors, and that the manner of death was ruled a homicide. It identifies her as 54-year-old Thameka Harvell of Northeast, D.C., and it prints the case number CCN 25002905. WTOP reported officers responded just after 5 a.m. on Jan. 7, 2025, to the same block for an unconscious person, that they found a woman unconscious and unresponsive, and that she was pronounced dead at the scene. It reported the same April 2025 homicide ruling, the same blunt-force head injury with other contributing factors, and the same name and age. It did not name the Fifth District, DC Fire and EMS, or a case number. WTOP described the arrest as coming more than a year and a half after she was found.

What the two accounts leave out is the same list. They do not describe how Harvell was injured, what the other contributing factors were, or why investigators connected Bellamy to her death. They do not say whether anyone else is being sought. The release's "will be charged" and WTOP's "charged" are both descriptions of a second-degree murder accusation. Neither is a verdict. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.