On a Thursday evening in September, the sound of gunshots shattered the peace in the 5200 block of Clay Street in Northeast Washington, D.C. When police responded to the reports at approximately 6:10 p.m. on September 11, 2014, they discovered the body of 26-year-old Titus Jackson. The young man, a resident of Northeast, D.C., had been fatally shot and was pronounced dead at the scene shortly after being found by the authorities.
The incident prompted an investigation by the Metropolitan Police Department's Homicide Branch.
The investigation into the death of the male victim led detectives to identify a suspect. More than two months after the shooting, on November 21, 2014, police arrested 25-year-old Vernon Hedrick, also a resident of Northeast D.C. Hedrick was subsequently charged with first-degree murder in connection with Titus Jackson's death. Investigators revealed that surveillance camera footage from the day of the homicide, recorded at 6:09 p.m., showed Hedrick walking with Jackson and a third unidentified individual in the same block where the shooting occurred.
Following his arrest, Vernon Hedrick faced legal proceedings for the murder of Titus Jackson. In December 2014, a judge found probable cause to hold Hedrick on the first-degree murder charge. The case then proceeded through the court system, culminating in a jury trial. Despite the initial charges and the evidence presented, the outcome of the trial was an acquittal. In April 2018, a jury found Vernon Hedrick not guilty of the murder of Titus Jackson.
