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District resident Demarcus Barnett, 20, has been sentenced to nearly nine years in prison after pleading guilty over the summer to voluntary manslaughter while armed for the fatal shooting of 62-year-old Lasanta Qumar McGill in June.
McGill was shot and killed when an argument inside a Northwest DC market spilled out into the street and shots were fired, according to police.
In August, Barnett admitted that after being robbed by two people, he chased them down and began wildly firing shots down the sidewalk, striking and killing McGill, who was standing in the area and had nothing to do with the initial incident.
Metropolitan Police Commander James Boteler said that at approximately 1:15 p.m. on Thursday, June 8, officers in the area of the 1900 block of 7th Street NW heard gunshots ring out while on patrol near the Howard Theater.
Upon arrival, they found and treated McGill, who suffered a gunshot wound until paramedics arrived to take him to an area hospital, where he was pronounced dead that afternoon.
With an assist from nearby witnesses and the responding officers, a shooting suspect was taken into custody and a weapon recovered at the scene of the shooting.
Barnett was identified as a suspect the day after the shooting and he was arrested on a murder while armed charge.
Boteler said that McGill "was just out on the block enjoying the weather," when he was killed.
"This just goes to reaffirm that we have way too many people on our streets in Washington, DC carrying illegal firearms who have no business carrying illegal firearms," he added. "We do our best every single day as an agency along with our federal partners, and we do it very well.
"Unfortunately, there are too many people carrying illegal firearms, and simple disputes that lead to gunfire is unacceptable in any city, especially here in Washington, DC."
Prosecutors had requested that Barnett get at maximum sentence of 15 years in prison due to his criminal history. In addition to time behind bars, a judge also ordered that Barnett serve five years of supervised release.
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