Do you know who killed Jibri West in 2019? Jibri West, 21, a Black man from Northeast Washington, D.C., was caught in a burst of gunfire shortly after 9:15 p.m. on December 30, 2019, in the 600 block of M Street, Northeast, near Florida Avenue and the Gallaudet University campus. Police said West was driving along M Street when someone on the sidewalk opened fire on him. The gunfire struck him multiple times, and despite the violence of the attack, he was able to speed away from the area in his vehicle. A D.C.
police commander told The Washington Post that the shooting appeared to have been targeted.
West continued driving until he reached the intersection of 8th and H streets Northeast, where officers found him unconscious and unresponsive. He was suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services responded and transported him to an area hospital, but the effort to save his life was unsuccessful, and he was pronounced dead. The Metropolitan Police Department formally identified him the following day and opened the investigation through its Homicide Branch.
In the aftermath, investigators appealed to the public for information about the shooting and the person or persons responsible. An MPD homicide bulletin identified the killing as having occurred at approximately 9:15 p.m. in the 600 block of M Street, Northeast, and offered a reward of up to $25,000 for information leading to an arrest and conviction. The department provided investigators' contact information and continued to solicit anonymous tips as the case was investigated.
The Metropolitan Police Department's current 2019 major-case list continues to include Jibri West's killing among the year's unsolved homicides, indicating that the case has not been publicly cleared. The online police materials reviewed do not identify a suspect by name and do not document an arrest, criminal charge, trial, or conviction for West's death. Publicly available reporting likewise does not establish that anyone was prosecuted for the shooting. The surviving record therefore leaves the circumstances of the attack clear in broad outline—a young man was shot while driving on M Street and later died at a hospital—while the identity of the shooter and the reason for the attack remain unresolved in the sources reviewed.
