In the early morning hours of June 17, 2021, the quiet of the 3100 block of Waclark Place, Southeast in Washington, D.C. was shattered by the sound of gunfire. Responding to a report of a shooting at approximately 5:02 a.m., officers from the Seventh District of the Metropolitan Police Department arrived to find a man suffering from gunshot wounds. The victim was identified as 28-year-old Demonte Thompson, a resident of Southeast, D.C.
Emergency medical services transported him to a local hospital, but his life could not be saved, and he was pronounced dead. The Metropolitan Police Department's Homicide Branch is investigating the case and has offered a reward of up to $25,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for this homicide.
In a separate and unrelated incident that took place years earlier, another young man with a strikingly similar name also met a violent end in the city. On the afternoon of May 9, 2017, at about 2:07 p.m., 25-year-old Damonta Thompson was shot and killed in the 100 block of Irvington Street, Southwest. An investigation revealed that a man named Seth Holmes had followed Thompson in his vehicle before stopping, getting out, and firing a gun four times in his direction. Thompson was struck once in the back and was found semi-conscious and unresponsive by responding officers. He was transported to a hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.
Three days after the shooting, the suspect, Seth Holmes, fled the Washington, D.C. area and went to a relative's home in St. Petersburg, Florida. U.S. Marshals located and arrested him on June 5, 2017, and he was extradited back to the District of Columbia to face charges. Holmes, who was 25 at the time, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter while armed. The plea agreement called for a sentence of 10 to 14 years in prison, and in October 2017, he was sentenced to 13 years for the fatal shooting.
