Breyona McMillian, a 16-year-old female, was tragically killed on November 25, 2016, the day after Thanksgiving, in Washington, D.C. She had been attending a boarding school in Iowa and had returned home to spend the holiday with her family. Just before noon, while standing with friends in the courtyard of the Potomac Gardens housing complex on I Street SE, gunfire erupted. Breyona was struck multiple times and was later pronounced dead at a hospital.
Police believe she was not the intended target of the shooting.
The investigation into Breyona's death quickly focused on 30-year-old Saeve Evans. Surveillance footage from the scene showed Evans firing a weapon at the time of the shooting. Four days after the incident, Evans turned himself in to the police. He was initially charged with unlawful possession of a firearm, as he was a convicted felon. Later, the charges were upgraded to second-degree murder.
During the trial, prosecutors argued that Evans, entangled in a long-running feud with another man, began shooting at a car he mistakenly believed his rival was in, tragically killing Breyona in the process. However, Evans's defense attorneys contended that someone in the car fired first and that Evans acted in self-defense, returning fire. They argued that the bullets that killed Breyona came from the car. After a two-week trial, the jury deliberated for less than a day before acquitting Saeve Evans of second-degree murder and other charges related to Breyona's death in February 2019. Though acquitted of murder, Evans was sentenced to over four years in prison for unlawful possession of a firearm.
