Do you know who murdered Marvin Gross? In the early morning hours of a summer day in Washington, D.C., the life of 20-year-old Marvin Gross was cut short by gunfire. On Saturday, July 27, 2002, at approximately 3:25 a.m., Gross was shot and killed at the intersection of Suitland Parkway and Firth Sterling Avenue, SE. An African-American male, Gross was a resident of the 1400 block of Morris Road SE and was pronounced dead at D.C.
General Hospital from a gunshot wound.
The Metropolitan Police Department continues to seek information from the public regarding this incident, offering a reward of up to $25,000 for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for his death. Officially, the case remains an unsolved homicide, with no arrests made or suspects publicly identified in direct connection with his killing.
Although no one has been charged with Marvin Gross's death, court proceedings in a related case have shed light on the violent circumstances that likely led to his demise. Prosecutors in a separate murder trial revealed that Gross's death was the result of an exchange of gunfire between two vehicles carrying men from the Barry Farm and Sursum Corda neighborhoods. In the aftermath, word on the street pointed to a man named Franklin Thompson as the one who had shot Gross, though he was never formally charged in the slaying.
The narrative took a darker turn a few nights later when two of Gross's friends, Ron D. Herndon and Keith T. Thomas, sought vengeance for his death. In a case of mistaken identity, they targeted James Fisher III, a 22-year-old man they believed to be Franklin Thompson due to a similar appearance. Herndon and Thomas were later convicted of first-degree murder in the death of James Fisher. While this conviction brought justice for the Fisher family, Marvin Gross's own murder case remains officially unresolved.
