In the autumn of 2012, a life was abruptly cut short on a Wednesday afternoon in the nation's capital. Gregory Darnell Troxler, a 21-year-old male, was in the 1100 block of 8th Street in Northeast Washington, D.C., on October 10th when the sound of gunshots echoed through the neighborhood at approximately 3:51 p.m. Officers from the Fifth District, hearing the shots, responded to the scene where they discovered Troxler suffering from gunshot wounds. Despite the immediate response from law enforcement and D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services, his injuries were too severe, and he was pronounced dead.
The investigation into the homicide was launched by the Metropolitan Police Department's Homicide Branch. Their efforts seemed to yield a significant breakthrough just over a week later. On October 19, 2012, the police department announced that an arrest had been made, and they considered the case closed.
The individual taken into custody was 18-year-old Kevon Marquis Austin, who was apprehended during a traffic stop the following day. Austin was subsequently charged with second-degree murder while armed in connection with Troxler's death. A judge found that there was probable cause in the case against him and ordered him to be held without bail.
However, the legal proceedings against Austin took an unexpected turn. In February 2013, just before a scheduled preliminary hearing, prosecutors made the decision to drop the murder charge against him. This led to Austin's release from custody. At the time of the shooting, Austin had been on a GPS monitoring bracelet for an unrelated case, but prosecutors noted that the device had stopped transmitting a signal less than an hour before Troxler was killed. Despite a witness identifying Austin from photos and others placing someone matching his description near the scene, the charges were ultimately dismissed. Since the release of the initial and only suspect, there have been no public announcements regarding further suspects or arrests in the fatal shooting of Gregory Troxler.
