On the afternoon of Thursday, April 1, 2021, in the 2600 block of Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue, Southeast in Washington, D.C., 18-year-old Michael Benbow was shot and killed. The incident occurred at approximately 4:21 p.m. inside a residence where officers from the Seventh District of the Metropolitan Police Department responded to a report of a shooting. Upon their arrival, they discovered Mr. Benbow suffering from multiple gunshot wounds.
Emergency medical services responded to the scene but found no signs of life.
At the time of the shooting, a juvenile female was also present and sustained a graze wound, for which she was transported to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. A second adult male also suffering from a gunshot wound related to the incident was located at an area hospital and treated for non-life-threatening injuries. The investigation into the death of Michael Benbow, a resident of Southwest, D.C., was taken over by the Homicide Branch of the Metropolitan Police Department.
Less than a year prior to his own death, in August 2020, then 17-year-old Michael Benbow had been arrested and charged as an adult with first-degree murder while armed in connection with the shooting death of 28-year-old David Deandre Young, which had occurred on April 3, 2020. At the time of his killing, Mr. Benbow was on pretrial release for this charge. The case of Michael Benbow's homicide remains under investigation, and authorities have offered a reward of up to $25,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible. To date, there has been no public announcement of any arrests or identified suspects in his murder.
