Do you know who murdered Marcel Merritt? In the early morning hours of October 17, 2005, the bodies of two teenage friends were discovered lying on the eastbound lanes of Suitland Parkway in Southeast Washington, D.C. Sixteen-year-old Marcel Merritt and his 17-year-old friend, Kevin A. Jackson, had both been shot multiple times. Authorities also noted that the bodies appeared to have been struck by at least one vehicle, though it was unclear if the driver was involved in their deaths or if their bodies had been left there after the shooting.
The double homicide was part of a sudden spike in violence in the city, with six people being fatally shot in just over 48 hours. Police offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the murders of Merritt and Jackson, but no immediate suspects were named, and no arrests have been publicly announced in connection with their deaths.
The investigation into who killed the two teenagers was launched by the Metropolitan Police Department's Violent Crimes Branch.
In a turn of events that complicated the narrative of his death, authorities revealed that at the time he was killed, Marcel Merritt was a suspect in four other homicides and the critical wounding of another person. Described by police as a neighborhood terror, Merritt had been in and out of the city's juvenile justice system since at least the age of 14. He had a history of arrests, including charges for weapons possession. In fact, following his death, police were able to close two unsolved homicide cases from 2004, officially naming Merritt as the perpetrator, as witnesses became more willing to come forward. At the time of his murder, there was an active arrest warrant for Merritt, who had disappeared from the home of a relative where he was supposed to be under supervision. Police do not believe his friend, Kevin A. Jackson, was involved in the previous crimes Merritt was suspected of committing.
