In the early moments of a Saturday morning in Washington, D.C., the life of 35-year-old Derrick Eugene Williams was tragically cut short. On March 29, 2014, in the 1200 block of Eaton Road, Southeast, Williams was found lying on the sidewalk with a gunshot wound to the head. Officers responded to reports of gunfire just after 12:20 a.m. and discovered him.
He was rushed to a local hospital, but lifesaving efforts were unsuccessful, and he was pronounced dead shortly after 1:00 a.m.
The investigation into the death of the Southeast D.C. resident quickly moved forward. A witness reported seeing two individuals standing over Williams's body. According to the witness, one person was pulling Williams's legs while the other appeared to be going through his pockets. This witness identified one of the suspects as a man they had known for over a decade by the nickname 'Face.' When presented with a photograph, the witness confirmed the identity of the suspect.
Within days, authorities made an arrest in connection with the homicide. A 25-year-old Southeast D.C. man, Gregory Allen Green, was taken into custody. Green was subsequently charged with first-degree murder while armed, felony murder, and attempted robbery. In December of that year, a grand jury indicted Green on charges of first-degree murder while armed, armed robbery, and three weapons charges. He pleaded not guilty to the charges brought against him.
In a separate and unrelated incident in January 2025, another man named Derrick Williams, a 45-year-old military veteran, died in a shootout with D.C. police in the NoMa neighborhood. This Derrick Williams had moved to the nation's capital in the hopes of finding help for his post-traumatic stress disorder, a consequence of his deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. His mother described him as a 'good man who served this country.' In the days leading up to his death, some residents of his apartment building reported that he had been behaving erratically. The confrontation with police occurred after officers responded to a report of a gunshot in the building. When they encountered Williams in the lobby, a struggle ensued, and he opened fire, wounding three officers before he was fatally shot.
