Rachel King, a 35-year-old mother and elementary school teacher, was in the drive-thru at Dunkin’ Donuts at 7:39 a.m., Tuesday, April 11, 2023, while her 11-year-old son was in the back seat. It was a normal morning, until it wasn’t.

A barrage of bullets rang out, striking King’s Ford Edge several times as the vehicle plowed forward into a parking lot island. King was fatally wounded.

“On arrival, police found a female victim in the driver’s seat of a black Ford Edge, dead from multiple gunshot wounds,”the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office said in a news release. Her son was unharmed.

Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin R. Steele told reporters that a light-colored sedan was spotted driving directly behind King’s vehicle when she turned into the restaurant’s parking lot. The car parked a short distance away from the drive-thru lane.

“A Black male exited the sedan and walked up to the driver’s side of King’s vehicle, where he fired numerous shots through the driver’s side window, before fleeing back to his vehicle and leaving the scene, driving eastbound on Cheltenham Avenue,” the release states.

“This appears to be a targeted murder of a mother,” Steele said in the release, adding that the suspect “did not attempt to open the victim’s vehicle door, nor did he appear to communicate with her prior to shooting her numerous times through her driver’s side window.”

Authorities have arrested two people – Zakkee Steven Alhakim, 33, and Julie Jean, 34 – in what they are calling a love triangle gone wrong.

"This cold-blooded killing of Rachel King was a targeted murder of an innocent person, planned by these two defendants and horrifically carried out in front of King's son," Steele said in a news release. "It is a tragic killing of a good person, all because of an ended affair."

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