On the evening of April 18, 2020, in the Shipley Terrace neighborhood of Washington, D.C., 28-year-old Toussaunt Strong was visiting his father's home on 24th Street SE. Shortly before 7:00 p.m., his life was cut short in a sudden act of violence. He was unarmed and unsuspecting when a man emerged from a nearby house, pointed a weapon at him, and began to give chase.
Strong fled up the 3400 block of 24th Street SE, but his pursuer was relentless.
As the man closed the distance, he pulled his jacket hood over his head and opened fire, striking Strong multiple times. The chase was captured on video surveillance, but the shooting itself occurred just out of the camera's view, and there were no eyewitnesses to the murder. Emergency services responded to reports of the shooting around 6:53 p.m. and found Strong unconscious. He was transported to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead.
The investigation into the homicide led detectives to identify 25-year-old Ravel Mills of Temple Hills, Maryland, as the suspect. Acting on a D.C. Superior Court arrest warrant, members of the Capital Area Regional Fugitive Task Force apprehended Mills on May 4, 2020, and charged him with first-degree murder while armed. The prosecution's case against Mills was built on a foundation of video surveillance, circumstantial evidence, and evidence of a motive.
On October 3, 2023, a jury found Ravel Mills, then 29, guilty of second-degree murder while armed, possession of a firearm during a crime of violence, and carrying a pistol without a license. On February 22, 2024, he was sentenced to 29 years in prison for the murder of Toussaunt Strong. The judge ordered the sentences for the firearm offenses to be served consecutively to the murder sentence, ensuring a lengthy period of incarceration for the man responsible for the tragic and senseless death.
