On the morning of October 7, 1991, Ronald Levert Richardson, a 36-year-old male correctional officer, was getting into his car in front of his home in the 5700 block of Blaine Street NE in Washington, D.C., when he was ambushed and fatally shot. The assassination was a calculated act to prevent him from testifying in a criminal trial later that day. Richardson was a key witness in the kidnapping and drug case against Michael A.
Page, an inmate who had taken Richardson and another officer hostage at a halfway house in 1990 after being caught with cocaine.
The investigation into Richardson's murder revealed a conspiracy to silence him. Authorities identified Bradley Sweet as the hitman hired to carry out the execution. In a trial that consolidated the charges related to Richardson's death and the subsequent murder of a witness, Marcia Watson, Sweet was convicted of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, felony murder, and obstruction of justice. Three other individuals, Tony Hammond, Terrence Pleasant, and Michael Page, were also charged in connection with the conspiracy to murder the correctional officer.
Marcia Watson, who had knowledge of the planning of Richardson's murder, was shot in October 1991 and later fatally shot in November of the same year to prevent her from cooperating with police. Bradley Sweet was also convicted for the assault and murder of Watson. The brazen assassination of a law enforcement officer to derail a criminal prosecution highlighted the dangers faced by those who stand as witnesses against violent crime in the city.
