Anwar Wingate was a 24-year-old male professional boxer from Maryland, known in the ring as “The Silent Assassin,” whose promising career was tragically cut short. In the early morning hours of November 19, 2023, his life came to a violent end inside a parking garage in the Shaw neighborhood of Northwest Washington, D.C. At approximately 3:08 a.m., police responded to a call about an unconscious person and found Wingate suffering from a fatal gunshot wound; he was pronounced dead at the
scene.
Investigations into his death revealed that Wingate was the victim of an armed robbery. According to court documents and witness statements, Wingate had been out that night and was heavily intoxicated. Surveillance footage from the garage on the 2100 block of 8th Street NW captured his interaction with two young men just before the shooting. The videos reportedly showed Wingate flashing a handgun he had in his waistband while stumbling at times. The men he was with allegedly mocked him on social media while recording him. The situation escalated when they attempted to rob him of his firearm. A witness told investigators the assailants had said they would shoot the well-known boxer if he tried to fight back. Wingate did attempt to resist, and during the struggle, he was shot in the neck.
The investigation led detectives to identify two suspects from Maryland. On January 24, 2024, the Capital Area Regional Fugitive Task Force arrested 20-year-old Jayvon Thomas and 19-year-old Lavar Hunter. Both were charged with first-degree felony murder while armed. Hunter was identified as the alleged shooter in court documents. Both men pleaded not guilty to the charges. During court proceedings, a judge found probable cause to hold them without bond. A later court appearance was complicated when Thomas failed to appear because he had been arrested in Maryland on a separate gun charge, leading a D.C. Superior Court judge to issue a bench warrant for him.
