The Maryland man charged in the deadly 2021 shooting of 6-year-old Nyiah Courtney was found dead Thursday in the D.C. jail, according to the city’s department of corrections.
Authorities said Marktwan Hargraves, 24, of Waldorf, was found unresponsive early Thursday morning. First responders administered CPR and Narcan, a drug that reverses the effects of opioid overdose, but Hargraves was pronounced dead just after 2:30 a.m., according to the DOC.
Hargraves faced a second-degree murder charge in Courtney’s death. She was shot while riding her scooter alongside her mother, who was also wounded in the nighttime shooting on July 16, 2021. Investigators said they linked Hargraves to the shooting, in part, through text messages in which he appeared to express sympathy and responsibility for the crime.
Thirteen other people were indicted in a conspiracy to distribute narcotics, and former D.C. police Chief Robert Contee said their actions helped to create the violent conditions that led to Courtney’s death.
While first responders administered Narcan, the city’s department of corrections said it’s not certain Hargraves died from an overdose, and his cause of death is still undetermined. D.C. police and the department of corrections are investigating his death.
This would be the D.C. jail’s first reported overdose in the roughly 14 months since two inmates died and another was hospitalized during a similar medical emergency.
WTOP’s Jack Moore contributed to this report.
