In the midst of a summer afternoon in Washington, D.C., on August 14, 2017, a burst of gunfire shattered the midday calm. Thirty-one-year-old Donta McNeil was shot and killed while sitting in a green Mercedes-Benz. The incident occurred around 12:30 p.m. in the 2000 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue, SE, a busy thoroughfare in the Anacostia neighborhood.
The brazen daylight shooting took place just steps from a D.C. government housing office.
The fatal shooting was one of four that occurred on the same day in the city, contributing to concerns about violence in the area. At the time of his death, authorities had not publicly identified any suspects or a motive in McNeil's killing. The Metropolitan Police Department appealed to the public for assistance in gathering information regarding the homicide.
McNeil's life had seen its own share of legal troubles. Just five months before his death, in March 2017, he had been released from the D.C. jail. Prosecutors had dismissed a second-degree murder charge against him from October 2015. He had been accused of the shooting death of 24-year-old Antonio Dean during an argument at a dice game. However, McNeil's attorney argued that no one had witnessed the shooting and that the witness identification was flawed. Ultimately, the charges were dropped, and McNeil was freed. His own violent death just months later left another unsolved homicide in the city.
