In the pre-dawn hours of Sunday, April 12, 2026, the quiet of a Southeast Washington, D.C. neighborhood was broken by the sound of gunfire. At approximately 5:01 a.m., officers from the Metropolitan Police Department’s Seventh District were dispatched to an apartment building in the 1200 block of Valley Avenue, Southeast, following reports of a shooting. Upon arrival, they discovered a man inside the hallway suffering from a gunshot wound.
The man, a Black / African American male identified as 29-year-old Levon Livingston of Southeast, D.C., was unresponsive. DC Fire and Emergency Medical Services personnel responded to the scene and attempted lifesaving efforts, but Livingston was pronounced dead.
The investigation into the death of Levon Livingston moved quickly as detectives began to piece together the events that led to the fatal shooting. Preliminary findings suggested that the incident was domestic in nature. Within a day, investigators had identified a suspect in the case. A D.C. Superior Court arrest warrant was issued for 26-year-old Niko Lancaster, a resident of Oxon Hill, Maryland, just across the state line.
On Monday, April 13, 2026, the day after the shooting, members of the Capital Area Regional Fugitive Task Force, working in collaboration with the Prince George's County Police Department, located and apprehended Niko Lancaster. He was taken into custody without incident and charged with Second Degree Murder in connection with Livingston's death. The swift arrest brought a quick, though not final, development to a case that had tragically cut a young life short.
