On Saturday evening, dozens of drivers pulled into the empty Greenbelt Metro station parking lot. They lined their cars — an Infiniti Q50, a Chevrolet Corvette and a Ford Mustang among them — in neat rows.

The car enthusiasts hadn’t come to perform or watch stunts like burnouts and doughnuts. They stepped out of their cars and lifted candles to honor the life of one of their own, John Phipps, who was fatally shot inside a silver Ford Edge at the kind of event that often brought them together: a car meet.