In the winter of 2014, a tragic discovery was made in a rowhouse in Southeast Washington, D.C. On the afternoon of January 30th, the bodies of 21-year-old Ervin Phillip Ingraham and Ronnetta Hurley-Brown were found inside an apartment in the 1600 block of 17th Street, SE. Both had been fatally shot. When authorities entered the home, they found a grim scene. Ingraham was lying facedown on the living room floor, not far from the entrance.
Hurley-Brown was discovered in the kitchen.
The sense of tragedy was deepened by the presence of their two young children, a one-year-old and a two-year-old, who were found unharmed inside the apartment. The initial investigation led police to believe that the killings were not a random act of violence, but rather a targeted event.
Months later, in November of that same year, an arrest was made in connection with the double homicide. Tyrron Lamont Sweeney, then 22 years old, was taken into custody and charged with the murders of Ingraham and Hurley-Brown. Following his arrest, a judge found that there was probable cause to move forward with the case against him, based on what was described as a 'web of circumstantial evidence.'
