A federal judge sentenced 30-year-old Dearay Wilson to 18 years in prison on Friday for the second-degree murder of Jeremy Black in Washington, D.C. Wilson had pleaded guilty in February. The shooting occurred in June 2021 when Wilson and three others fired 45 rounds at a group outside an apartment building.
Jeremy Black, a 53-year-old father of two, was walking with his wife and a friend near the 1400 block of R Street Northwest after dinner when he was fatally shot once in the left torso. The incident took place on the evening of June 29, 2021, as Wilson and three accomplices arrived in a stolen car on Johnson Avenue Northwest, walked to the location, and opened fire on people outside an apartment complex. Black died at the scene despite the random nature of the attack, which left neighbors reeling from the gunfire and shattered glass nearby. One neighbor, Janice Holland, told WUSA she saw Black on the ground with his wife calling out to him, saying 'I love you.' Another neighbor described to WRC how his window shattered, covering him in glass and bullet shrapnel while he sat on his couch. Wilson was arrested following the shooting, though details on the other three men remain unclear and no motive was disclosed by prosecutors. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro stated, 'This sentencing sends a clear and necessary message: violent crime will not go unanswered. Dearay Wilson and other shooters indiscriminately fired over 45 rounds into a busy public street, killing Jeremy Black — an innocent man walking with his wife and friends after dinner.' Black, a former Peace Corps volunteer in the Comoros Islands and employee at the Ford Foundation and Peace Corps' Inspector General's Office, left behind children aged 17 and 15.