In the early morning hours of Saturday, July 6, 2013, the sound of gunfire shattered the predawn quiet at the intersection of 53rd and E Streets in Southeast Washington, D.C. Responding to the alert at approximately 2:14 a.m., Metropolitan Police Department officers discovered the body of 38-year-old Christopher McKay Ballard, a male resident of Southeast D.C., lying in the street. He had sustained multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene.
The homicide of Christopher Ballard was not a random act of violence in the eyes of investigators. Just two days later, he was scheduled to appear in D.C. Superior Court to testify as a witness in an armed carjacking case. The previous December, Ballard and another individual had been carjacked at gunpoint in the same neighborhood. Following that incident, Ballard had identified one of the alleged perpetrators, leading to the arrest of a man named Delante Smith.
In a grim twist of fate, the second suspect in the carjacking was reportedly murdered at the very same intersection where Ballard would later lose his life.
Despite the clear connections to the ongoing court case, the investigation into Christopher Ballard's death has been met with enduring silence. Law enforcement officials acknowledged the possibility that Ballard was killed to prevent his testimony but have not been able to make any arrests in his murder. Sources indicated that there had been efforts to keep Ballard out of the neighborhood for his own safety, and he had allegedly been assaulted in the area the weekend before his death. The Metropolitan Police Department continues to list the case as a major unsolved homicide and has appealed to the public for any information that might lead to a breakthrough in the investigation. No suspects have been publicly named or apprehended in connection with his killing.
