On a December afternoon in 2018, just after returning home from school, 15-year-old Gerald Watson asked his mother if he could go play basketball. Shortly after he left his Washington, D.C. apartment, the ninth-grader was chased by two armed and masked individuals through the parking lot of an apartment complex on Knox Place SE. The day was December 13, and it would be the last day of the young man's life.
Gerald, a student at Anacostia High School, sought refuge in his aunt's apartment
building nearby. He was pursued into the stairwell by one of the assailants, while the other waited outside. Witnesses heard the high school freshman scream, 'Help me! Open the door!' as he was cornered on the top landing. It was there that he was shot 16 times with a. 40-caliber revolver. His brother, hearing the gunshots, ran outside and found Gerald in the hallway, covered in blood and gasping for air. When asked if he was hit, Gerald replied, 'everywhere.' He was transported to a local hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries.
The investigation into Gerald Watson's murder quickly led police to 16-year-old Malik Holston, who was arrested just five days after the shooting. Authorities believed the shooting was the result of a neighborhood dispute between teens from different apartment complexes. Holston's accomplice, Steffan Brathwaite, was later identified but was killed in an unrelated shooting in September 2019. During his trial, a witness testified that Holston had run into her apartment after the shooting, breathing heavily and carrying a black gun. Text messages from Brathwaite to his girlfriend also implicated Holston in the murder.
In November 2022, a D.C. Superior Court jury found Malik Holston guilty of first-degree murder while armed and several weapons charges. On March 1, 2023, he was sentenced to 40 years in prison. At the sentencing, Gerald's mother shared her profound grief, saying, 'I will give anything and everything, even my own life, to get my son back.' His sister, who was working to become a police officer to protect others from gun violence, also spoke of the trauma her family endured. The tragic death of Gerald Watson, remembered for his love of football and his infectious smile, led to the creation of 'The Gerald Project,' a mentorship program for young Black boys in D.C. impacted by homicide.
