In the early hours of April 18, 2021, Ronald McKnight, a 44-year-old Black male from Northwest, Washington, D.C., was found deceased in the bathroom of a hostel located on the 1600 block of 7th Street, NW. The Metropolitan Police Department responded to a call about an unconscious person at approximately 1:31 a.m. and discovered McKnight with gunshot wounds.
Emergency services found no signs of life, and he was pronounced dead at the scene.
The investigation into McKnight's death led to the arrest of 39-year-old Nathan Hunter, a man of no fixed address. Hunter was taken into custody on the same day as the incident and was initially charged with second-degree murder while armed. According to court documents and police investigation, McKnight and Hunter had been inside the hostel bathroom together for over half an hour before the shooting occurred. After the incident, Hunter fled the scene and went to a friend's apartment before eventually turning himself in to the authorities.
During legal proceedings, Hunter claimed that he acted in self-defense, alleging that McKnight had 'bum-rushed' him in the bathroom, leading to a struggle that culminated in the fatal shooting. The defense highlighted that McKnight had a high level of PCP in his system at the time of his death, with a toxicology report showing 190 nanograms per milliliter of the dissociative hallucinogenic drug. They also pointed to McKnight's past offenses which were believed to be related to PCP use. Prosecutors, however, presented testimony from the lead detective who believed that the wounds on McKnight were defensive. After a preliminary hearing in March 2022, a judge ruled that there was enough evidence for the case to proceed to trial, but on the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter while armed.
