On a summer evening in Washington, D.C., what began as a routine chore ended in a tragedy that has left a family searching for answers for over a decade. James Lott, a 43-year-old Black male, was fatally shot on Sunday, June 24, 2007. The incident occurred at approximately 8:28 p.m. in front of a residence at 2677 Douglas Road, SE.
According to his girlfriend at the time, Tanya Brice, Lott had stepped outside to take out the trash. Brice was on the phone with her mother when she heard sounds she initially mistook for firecrackers, given the proximity to the Fourth of July holiday. When she looked outside, she discovered Lott lying on the ground, bleeding. Despite the presence of witnesses in the neighborhood, a wall of silence reportedly met the initial police investigation, leaving detectives with few leads.
In the years following the shooting, the case of James Lott's death grew cold.
His mother, Shirley Jamieson, has spoken of the enduring pain and the difficulty of not knowing who is responsible for her son's death. The lack of resolution has left her with a sense of unease and a longing for justice. The investigation into the homicide was taken up by the Metropolitan Police Department's Major Case/Unsolved Homicides division.
As of 2011, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia, in partnership with the MPD, was reviewing a number of unsolved homicides, including that of James Lott, in an effort to bring long-awaited closure to families. However, despite these efforts and public appeals for information, including a reward of up to $25,000 offered by the MPD, no arrests have been made in the case, and no suspects have been publicly identified. The murder of James Lott remains an open and unsolved case, a painful reminder of a life cut short by violence.
