On a spring evening in Washington, D.C., 23-year-old Mecca India Tyshea Gravette was fatally shot on May 3, 2018. She was in a car on the 3700 block of 1st Street, SE, when the incident occurred. Also killed in the shooting was 25-year-old Sukarno Turner. When officers from the Metropolitan Police Department arrived at the scene following reports of a shooting, they found both Gravette and Turner inside the vehicle, suffering from gunshot wounds.
Gravette was pronounced dead at the scene, while Turner was transported to a local hospital where he later died.
The investigation into the double homicide revealed a complex backstory. The shooting was carried out in a drive-by fashion, with the suspect or suspects pulling alongside the victims' rideshare vehicle in a white sedan and opening fire before fleeing the scene. Authorities later connected Turner to a police conspiracy case involving a former MPD civilian employee named Ronnika Jennings. Jennings, who had worked as a station clerk and had access to confidential police databases, was accused of leaking sensitive information to members of a street gang.
Further investigation led to Jennings being charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in connection with the deaths of Gravette and Turner. It was alleged that Jennings passed confidential information related to a rival gang member's murder case to the girlfriend of a man charged in that killing. Sukarno Turner was described as a 'close associate' of the man charged in the separate murder. It is not known if Gravette had any connection to the case.
Tragically, the violence that touched Mecca's family did not end with her death. Two years later, her younger sister, Cyhneil Smith, was also shot and killed in a vehicle, just a few miles from where Mecca was murdered.
