Detectives assigned to The Metropolitan Police Department’s Special Victims Unit have arrested a suspect in the homicide of an infant which occurred on November 16, 2008.  The suspect, identified as 33-year-old Jonathan Austin, of Northwest, DC, was arrested on the afternoon of Wednesday, November 19, 2008 while in the 500 block of Indiana Avenue, NW.  He has been charged with Murder II and will be arraigned tomorrow in DC Superior Court.

At approximately 4:38 pm on Sunday, November 16, 2008, members of the Special Victims Unit responded to Howard University Hospital for the report of an unconscious male infant.  Upon arrival, they located 8-month-old Ronjai Butler, of the 1200 block of North Capitol Street, NW, who had been pronounced dead.  Subsequently, the victim’s remains were transported to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner for the District of Columbia for an autopsy.

On Monday, November 17, 2008, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner for the District of Columbia ruled the cause of Ronjai’s death was due to blunt force trauma and the manner of the death homicide.