In the early hours of a Wednesday morning in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, the life of Marcus Washington, a 27-year-old man, was tragically cut short. On January 4, 2017, at approximately 2 a.m., police responded to a call of a shooting in the 1800 block of West 29th Avenue. Upon their arrival, they discovered Washington in the driver's seat of a vehicle, having sustained fatal gunshot wounds.
He was pronounced dead at the scene shortly thereafter.
The incident, which marked the city's second homicide of the new year, also left a female passenger in the vehicle with a non-life-threatening gunshot wound to her leg. Investigators at the scene found multiple shell casings on the ground and noted bullet holes in two vehicles as well as a nearby residence, indicative of the chaotic nature of the event. Witnesses reported that two vehicles, a white passenger car and a dark SUV, were seen leaving the area heading west on 29th Avenue with their headlights off immediately following the shooting.
The subsequent investigation by the Pine Bluff Police Department led to the arrest of a suspect. Johnnie Donson, who was seventeen years old at the time of the shooting, was taken into custody and charged with capital murder in connection with Washington's death. Surveillance footage from a gas station showing Donson driving a white Impala was obtained as part of the investigation. The case proceeded through the legal system, with the Jefferson County Circuit Court denying a motion to transfer Donson's case to the juvenile division, a decision that was later addressed in an appeal.
