In the summer of 2018, just a week shy of his eighteenth birthday, Amer Miller, a talented and driven 17-year-old male, was looking forward to a future brimming with promise. A recent graduate of Fairmont Heights High School, he was set to attend Mount St. Mary's University on a track scholarship with dreams of studying law and one day competing in the Olympics. His life, however, was tragically cut short on the streets of Prince George's County, Maryland.
On July 14, 2018, in the early moments after midnight, Miller was the victim of a robbery in the 2400 block of Kent Village Drive in Landover, near Hyattsville. The assailant took his iPhone X and fled the scene. Shortly after the theft, Miller reportedly encountered the gunman again and asked for his phone back. Instead of returning the property, the man opened fire. A passerby found the wounded teenager and rushed him to a nearby hospital, but his injuries proved to be fatal.
The investigation into the senseless killing moved swiftly. Within hours of the shooting, police apprehended a suspect, 26-year-old Davion Ballinger of Northwest Washington, D.C. He was subsequently charged with first-degree murder in connection with Amer Miller's death. According to police, Ballinger had robbed Miller before shooting him. He was held in jail without bond following his arrest. The death of the college-bound athlete, who had ironically written an essay on ending gun violence, sent shockwaves through his community, leaving friends and family to mourn a young life full of potential that was violently stolen.
