In the early morning hours of Friday, June 28, 2019, the sounds of gunshots shattered the predawn quiet in the 2400 block of 14th Street, Northeast in Washington, D.C. When police officers from the Fifth District arrived at the scene near the Brentwood Recreation Center around 2:47 a.m., they discovered a young man lying on the sidewalk with multiple gunshot wounds. The man, identified as 25-year-old Bernard Jarvis of Hyattsville, Maryland, was pronounced dead at the scene.
The investigation into the shooting death of Bernard Jarvis proceeded for nearly two weeks. Detectives from the Metropolitan Police Department's Homicide Branch worked to piece together the events that led to the fatal shooting. The case drew public attention, with the police offering a reward of up to $25,000 for any information that would lead to an arrest and conviction in the homicide.
The community was left to grapple with the violent loss of a young life in their neighborhood.
A break in the case came on Wednesday, July 10, 2019. Acting on a D.C. Superior Court arrest warrant, members of the Metropolitan Police Department's Fifth District located and apprehended a suspect. The individual taken into custody was identified as 32-year-old Delonta Daniel of Southeast, D.C. Following his arrest, Daniel was charged with First Degree Murder While Armed in connection with the shooting death of Bernard Jarvis. Authorities did not immediately release a possible motive for the killing.
