James Lott, a 43-year-old Black man, was fatally shot on the evening of Sunday, June 24, 2007, at about 8:28 p.m. He was killed in front of a residence at 2677 Douglas Road SE in Washington, D.C. His girlfriend at the time, Tanya Brice, said he had stepped outside to take out the trash and she heard noises she initially thought were firecrackers before finding him lying on the ground and bleeding.

Witnesses were reportedly present in the neighborhood, yet investigators encountered a wall of silence early in the inquiry, leaving detectives with few leads. The Metropolitan Police Department Major Case/Unsolved Homicides division took over the investigation. By 2011 the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia was reviewing a number of cold homicides, including Lott’s, and the MPD offered a reward of up to $25,000, but no arrests or publicly identified suspects have been announced.

Anyone who knew James Lott or has information about what happened on June 24, 2007, is asked to come forward.