WASHINGTON – A District man was sentenced Monday to 25 years in prison for the 2019 shooting death of a 16-year-old boy in Southeast Washington, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced.
Bernard Eddy, 24, was convicted by a Superior Court jury on April 22 of second-degree murder while armed and related weapons charges in the killing of Steffen Brathwaite. Prosecutors had sought a 31-year sentence.
According to court evidence, the shooting occurred shortly after midnight on September 10, 2019, on the 3000 block of 24th Place SE. Eddy approached Brathwaite, who was walking alone through the area, and fired multiple shots at him with a 9 mm handgun. Brathwaite collapsed, and Eddy fled the scene on foot.
Investigators later recovered a 15-second video from Eddy’s phone that was recorded about three hours after the shooting. In it, Eddy is seen celebrating the teen’s death. The phone was recovered eight days after the killing.
Eddy was arrested on January 6, 2023, and has been held without bail since then.