On a late-July night in 2020, 30-year-old Rabia Ahmad was hit by a bullet inside a house in Columbia — a place she had just recently begun to call home.

She was 28 weeks pregnant. Ahmad died at the hospital, and doctors were forced to deliver her baby, Ahja.

Five days later, Ahja died.

Now, nearly five years later, Howard County Police say they’ve arrested the man responsible.

Edward Robinson, 31, of Columbia, is charged with two counts each of first- and second-degree murder and related assault and firearms counts, according to online court records.

Police arrested Robinson in Gaithersburg on Wednesday, Howard County officials said. He’s being held without bond and does not have an attorney listed in online court records.

Police said they do not believe Ahmad was the intended target of the shooting.

“Nearly five years have passed since Rabiah and baby Ahja’s senseless deaths, and I know it must have felt much longer for their family,” Howard County Police Chief Gregory Der said in a statement. “Rabiah had an incredibly bright future, and her and Ahja’s lives were taken so callously.”

When Howard County Police initially went to the 6600 block of Dovecote Drive on July 31, 2020, they said they found multiple bullets had been fired into the house Ahmad was in.

Ahmad had moved to Maryland only recently and was living in the house for just a few months, police said. No one else was injured in the shooting.

According to reports at the time, Ahmad traveled to Maryland to spend time with the baby’s father and then decided to quarantine in Maryland once the COVID-19 pandemic struck.

The investigation

Ahmad was in an upstairs bedroom the night of the shooting, police said. Kadeem Bailey, Ahmad’s boyfriend and baby Ahja’s father, was downstairs in the kitchen making a smoothie when he heard gunfire.

Bailey dropped to the ground and then ran upstairs to check on Ahmad after the shooting stopped, according to police charging documents. There, he found Ahmad “bleeding heavily” from a single gunshot wound.

Another resident of the home, Justin M. Smorse, was in front of the house when he heard gunshots and then a vehicle speeding away from the rear of the home, police said.

An initial investigation found 9 bullet holes in the “spread” across the back of the house, which faces Martin Road. There were no bullet casings found in a search.

Four years later, a detective working on cold cases for Howard County got in touch with one of Ahmad’s aunts, who served as family representative.

The aunt learned that Robinson was a possible suspect. She retrieved a guest book from Ahmad’s funeral and found that Robinson signed his name in it as “Eddie Robinson.” Video from the funeral also showed Robinson speaking to people at the funeral, police wrote in charging documents.

Police were able to review messages from Robinson to a person whose name is redacted in charging documents. In those messages, Robinson allegedly said Ahmad was not the intended target, police wrote.

Police wrote they were told Robinson wanted to “send a message” to someone else in the home.

Robinson was arrested April 9.

Police said they searched Robinson’s home in Columbia on Wednesday and found a handgun. Officials said bullets found at the scene of the shooting almost five years ago are the same caliber as the gun they recovered and it will be tested to “determine if it was the murder weapon.”

Howard County Executive Calvin Ball said the police department has made solving cold cases a priority. The county has added two investigators to the cold case unit, he said, and increased the potential reward for cold case information to $30,000.

“Our efforts are making a difference, and we will continue to ensure that every resident is and feels safe,” he said in a statement.