DC Police have surveillance video of 14-year-old Steven Slaughter moments before he was shot on Minnesota Avenue in Southeast.
However, investigators are not ready to release the footage.
Slaughter lived with his mother a little more than a quarter mile away from the 7-Eleven on Good Hope Road.
Police were back at the convenience store on Tuesday after the owner told WUSA9 that detectives grabbed video of the teenager inside of the business on Sunday.
The owner and employees revealed that footage shows Slaughter walk in with one friend, buy something, and leave.
Slaughter went back inside of the store with that same friend and a third person before leaving again.
Moments later, the Friendship Collegiate High School 9th grader was shot near a church and died at the hospital.
“You go in to get a Slurpee, a bag of chips, and you lose your life,” Terrell Pharr said.
Pharr, also known as Coach Tip, was one of several men who coached Slaughter since he was five-years-old on the Tar Heels Youth Football team.
He was like a father figure to him.
“I was like come here son,” Pharr laughed. “He used to come to me like ‘alright if I’m your son, tie my shoe up.’ I’m in the middle of the game (I'm) tying his cleats up and all that like — It’s crazy. It’s just crazy dog. It’s a hard pill to swallow,” he said.
The teen’s death was a tragedy to all his coaches.
Steven Slaughter was walking home from the store. He was shot to death in front of a church in DC. He was just 14-years-old. @wusa9 @DCPoliceDept https://t.co/1FdfHiUOh5 #RIPStevenSlaughter pic.twitter.com/MnhEDuvjdX
— Michael Quander WUSA (@MikeQReports) January 16, 2018
“Nonstop cried because he is a baby,” Gregory “Coach G” Williams said.
“I cried myself to sleep because I’m still in disbelief,” Coach Rick Williams explained.
“He was like our own. We had him since he was five,” Andre “Coach Dre” Jennings said. “We was basically there. Saw him grow up.”
Slaughter’s former teammates called him Pooh.
The coaches said he was one of the good ones – nice, funny, and on the right path.
They say he stayed out of trouble.
Slaughter’s mother told WUSA9 her son stayed out of trouble.
“He always wanted to be perfect. That’s what type of kid he was. He wanted to be perfect in life. And now we’ve got to bury a child,” Pharr said.
Police said Slaughter was likely not the intended target in the attack, and the person who pulled the trigger has not been found.
“Turn yourself in because you took away one of the goodest kids that we’ve known,” Williams said.
Police are offering a reward of up to $25,000 to anyone who provides information leading to an arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for the homicide.
Anyone with information about this case is asked to call the police at 202-727-9099. Additionally, anonymous information may be submitted to the department’s TEXT TIP LINE by sending a text message to 50411.
