In the early morning of June 23, 2015, firefighters in northeast Washington, D.C., found the body of 19-year-old Heineken McNeil inside a charred trash can in an alley on the 1200 block of Holbrook Terrace NE. The medical examiner determined McNeil had been shot before the body was set on fire, which complicated the initial investigation and raised community concern about retaliatory violence.

Investigators arrested 19-year-old Zacchaeus Blanding on July 8, 2015, charging him with McNeil’s murder. During the probe police recovered a cellphone video Blanding recorded the day before the killing in which he stated an intention to kill his friend. Blanding later told police the shooting was accidental and that he tried to conceal the death by wrapping the body in duct tape, placing it in a trash can, and setting it on fire. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder while armed and was sentenced in February 2016.