Daniel Thompson dreamed of one day playing professional football before his life was cut short by gun violence in Northeast Washington in 2003.
On the night of June 15, Thompson was shot near the Minnesota Avenue Metro station as he was on his way home from his girlfriend’s apartment in the Mayfair complex in Northeast.
A driver who witnessed the crime called police and told them he had seen three men on a walkway leading to the Metro station when he saw the gun flash.
Two of the men fled, and more than six years later, authorities still have had no luck in finding them.
Authorities believe Thompson was killed by a pair that had already committed a series of armed robberies before they got to him. His assailants took his tennis shoes and cell phone, which they went on to use only once.
The motorist described the men he saw as African-Americans in their late teens or early 20s, one standing 6 feet tall and the other about 5 feet 7 inches.
The slaying still plagues Thompson’s family members, who remember him as a confident young man who moved to the beat of his own drum.
Thompson was an avid Dallas Cowboys fan, despite living just blocks from the Washington Redskins’ stadium.
A 300-pound offensive lineman at H.D. Woodson High School, Thompson helped his team win a city championship in 2002. He dreamed of one day playing football for Louisiana State University.
And his dreams might have come to fruition had his life not abruptly ended.
Just before he was killed, his high school football coach learned that Thompson had been accepted at Allegany College of Maryland, where he would have joined its football team.
Anyone with information about Thompson’s death is asked to call D.C. police at 202-727-9099.
