The life of Deandre Hawkins, a 24-year-old Black man, came to a violent end on a Monday morning in Washington, D.C. On April 22, 2019, at approximately 10:49 a.m., members of the Metropolitan Police Department’s Sixth District responded to a report of a shooting in the 5300 block of E Street, Southeast. Officers arrived to find Hawkins suffering from a gunshot wound.
DC Fire and Emergency Medical Services rushed him to a local hospital, but all life-saving efforts failed, and he was pronounced dead. At the time of his death, Hawkins had no fixed address.
Detectives with the Homicide Branch immediately began an investigation into the fatal shooting. They soon came to believe that the encounter was the result of a robbery gone wrong. Within weeks, investigators identified a suspect and sought the public's help in locating him. Police issued a DC Superior Court arrest warrant for 20-year-old Keonte Johnson of Southeast, D.C., for first-degree murder while armed under the felony murder statute. Authorities released a description of Johnson, noting he was a Black male, 6 feet tall and weighing 150 to 160 pounds, and should be considered armed and dangerous.
On May 15, 2019, less than a month after the shooting, police arrested Keonte Johnson. He was subsequently charged with a series of offenses, including armed first-degree murder while committing a robbery, armed robbery, possession of a firearm during a crime of violence, and carrying a pistol without a license.
In a court appearance on June 26, 2020, Johnson pleaded not guilty to the charges against him. However, by November of that year, his defense attorney indicated that a disposition had been reached, and the court scheduled a plea hearing. The case reached its conclusion in February 2021, when Keonte Johnson pleaded guilty in connection with the homicide of Deandre Hawkins.
