A man accused of shooting three homeless men in Northeast Washington in 2022, killing one of them, is now on trial in D.C. Superior Court, with a shooting survivor telling jurors this week what it was like to be hunted down and left for dead near a bridge in Ivy City.
Gerald Brevard III is accused of shooting three homeless men in D.C. between March 3 and March 9, 2022, according to WJLA. One of those men, 54-year-old Morgan Holmes, was shot and stabbed on March 9, 2022, on the 400 block of New York Avenue NE, per dcwitness.org, and later died. The other two victims survived the attacks, WJLA reports.
Jerald Turner, one of the survivors, testified about being shot near a bridge over New York Avenue in Ivy City, according to the station's report. Turner told jurors he spent seven days at MedStar Washington Hospital Center recovering from his wounds, per the same account. Detectives also testified in court Thursday, WJLA reports, as prosecutors laid out a case that has involved three shootings and one homicide in Washington.
Surveillance Footage and a New York Connection
According to the outlet's coverage, a nearby surveillance camera captured a man prosecutors say is Brevard in the Ivy City area around the time of the attacks. Investigators have also tied the D.C. case to a pair of shootings of unhoused people in New York on March 12, 2022, one of which was fatal, according to dcwitness.org, which reported that the Metropolitan Police Department said all of the victims in the three Washington shootings were unhoused individuals.
Per court records cited by WJLA, shell casings recovered in New York were believed to be from the .22-caliber gun Brevard allegedly used in D.C., and his cellphone was reportedly in New York City at the time of the March 12 shootings there. He was a suspect in the shooting of two homeless men in New York, per court records described by the station, but he has not been charged in those New York shootings.
The New York Times reported that the shootings across Washington and New York left two men dead and three others wounded. The Washington Post has described the case as a spree of violence that sparked a massive police search spanning both cities amid fears that vulnerable people were being deliberately targeted. The Post also reported that the two homeless men who died were killed three days apart in cities separated by 225 miles.
Competency Ruling and Evidence Disputes
Brevard, who WJLA reports has faced a long criminal history in the DMV including assault, robbery and drug-related accusations, was found mentally competent to stand trial by D.C. Superior Court Judge Neal Kravitz on Jan. 24, according to dcwitness.org. Court records cited by the outlet also state that Brevard spent time at St. Elizabeth's in D.C. and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
Judge Kravitz ruled on June 26 that prosecutors could not introduce late-filed evidence concerning the New York crimes at that stage of the case, dcwitness.org reported. More recently, Brevard told Judge Robert Okun on Aug. 23 that he intends to independently test DNA evidence provided by prosecutors, according to the outlet.
Accounts differ on when Brevard was taken into custody. NBC Washington reported that he was arrested March 15, 2022, in the District following a joint investigation by MPD, NYPD and the ATF. dcwitness.org, citing MPD documents, reported that he was arrested on May 15, 2022, by agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Charges and What Comes Next
Brevard is facing first-degree murder while armed along with firearm offenses, assault, bias-related crimes, mayhem and destruction of property charges, according to dcwitness.org. A grand jury returned a 17-count indictment charging him with murder, multiple counts of assault and hate crimes, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia.
Judge Kravitz said the trial would resume Tuesday morning at 9:45 a.m., WJLA reports, as testimony continues in a case that has already spanned two cities, multiple shootings and years of pretrial disputes over Brevard's mental state and the evidence against him.
