Do you know who murdered Travis Deyvon Ruth in 2019? In the evening hours of Friday, January 18, 2019, a young man's life was abruptly cut short on a street in Southeast Washington, D.C. Travis Deyvon Ruth, a 21-year-old male, was in the 2700 block of Jasper Street when violence erupted. At approximately 7:39 p.m., police responded to reports of a shooting. Upon their arrival, they discovered Ruth suffering from multiple gunshot wounds.
Despite the immediate response from DC Fire and Emergency Medical Services, his injuries were too severe, and he was pronounced dead at the scene. His body was then transported to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
The investigation into the homicide quickly pointed to a suspect. Less than a month later, on February 14, 2019, detectives from the Metropolitan Police Department's Homicide Branch made an arrest. Pursuant to a D.C. Superior Court arrest warrant, 19-year-old Elhadji Babacar Ndiaye, also from Southeast D.C., was taken into custody and charged with first-degree murder while armed. The arrest brought a swift development to a case that had added to a surge in homicides in the city that January.
During legal proceedings, further details of the night of the murder began to emerge. At a preliminary hearing, a judge found substantial probability that Ndiaye was involved in the fatal shooting. According to court documents and witness testimony presented by the prosecution, Ruth was sitting in the front seat of a green Honda Accord when Ndiaye allegedly opened the back door, pulled out a gun, and shot him nine times. Most of the wounds were to his back. Prosecutors also stated that after fleeing the scene, Ndiaye was responsible for destroying evidence, as the Honda Accord was found burned a week after the shooting. Furthermore, it was revealed that a witness in the case had received threatening phone calls. Despite his defense attorney's arguments regarding a lack of forensic evidence and the credibility of witnesses, the judge ruled that Ndiaye posed a danger to the community and he was held without bond.
