Local
Gay murder victim knew juvenile arrested in his slaying
A 17-year-old D.C. male charged with the Jan. 10 shooting death of gay Maryland resident Gordon Rivers told police he knew the man and invited him to the location where Rivers was shot during an alleged botched robbery, according to a police affidavit.
William X. Wren was ordered held without bond during a Jan. 29 arraignment in D.C. Superior Court on charges of first- and second-degree murder and assault with intent to kill while armed, all in connection with River’s death.
Rivers, 47, a resident of Brandywine, Md., was found laying in the street suffering multiple gunshot wounds in front of 2641 Naylor Road, S.E., at about 5:30 p.m. on Jan. 10 by an off-duty police officer, says the affidavit.
It says police arrested Wren after he voluntarily appeared at the police homicide squad office for an interview Jan. 28. It says Wren told detectives he knew Rivers and contacted him by phone to invite him for a visit near where Wren lived in Southeast D.C.
According to the affidavit, Wren allegedly shot Rivers inside Rivers’ car during a robbery shortly after Rivers drove to the area in his black Cadillac on Jan. 10.
The U.S. Attorney’s office charged Wren as an adult, resulting in the release of the three-page arrest affidavit that details the case against him. But the affidavit does not disclose whether Rivers’ sexual orientation was a factor in his murder or the nature of his relationship with Wren.
Benjamin Friedman, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s office, said the investigation into the murder is continuing and neither his office nor the police could provide additional details, such as how Rivers and Wren met each other.
People who knew Rivers told DC Agenda he was a regular customer of the D.C. gay bar Bachelor’s Mill, located near the Washington Navy Yard, which is about five miles from the area where he was killed.
One Bachelor’s Mill customer who knew Rivers said Rivers never mentioned having any ties to the Naylor Road, S.E., neighborhood where he was shot. However, the customer noted that the Naylor Road area is along the route Rivers would take to drive from his home in Brandywine to Bachelor’s Mill.
A law enforcement source said an area near where Rivers was shot has been known as a clandestine cruising spot for men seeking other men for sex.
The affidavit says the off-duty officer heard gunshots and observed “muzzle flash” from within a black Cadillac parked on the 2600 block of Naylor Road. It says the officer saw a youth, later identified as Wren, leave the car via the front passenger door while carrying a handgun. The youth then fled the scene.
“The officer observed a male subject, who was later identified as 47-year-old Gordon Rivers, exit the driver’s side door and walk to the rear of the vehicle where he collapsed,” says the affidavit.
Police said Rivers was taken by ambulance to Washington Hospital Center, where he was pronounced dead less than an hour later.
According to the affidavit, Wren voluntarily appeared at the police homicide office Jan. 28 and agreed to be interviewed about the case.
It says his appearance followed an earlier interview by homicide detectives of a witness who told detectives he knew Wren. The witness told detectives he overheard Wren and another man, whom police identify only as an “accomplice,” talk about robbing someone, says the affidavit.
It says the witness told police he saw the accomplice hand Wren a pistol moments before Wren entered Rivers’ car. According to the affidavit, the witness said he heard the sound of multiple gunshots coming from inside the car a short time later. It says the witness then saw Wren exit Rivers’ Cadillac and flee the scene.
The affidavit says that in the days following the murder, the witness reported hearing Wren say he shot Rivers “during the botched robbery attempt.”
The affidavit says Wren told detectives during his Jan. 28 police interview that he lives with the mother of his children on the 2400 block of S St., S.E., which is close to where he arranged to meet Rivers on the day of the shooting. He arranged to meet Rivers “for the purpose of robbing him of money and marijuana,” the affidavit says he told the detectives.
It says Wren told detectives he entered Rivers’ car unarmed with the intent that his accomplice would enter the car a short time later with a gun, and the two would carry out the robbery. But according to Wren, Rivers pulled out his own gun when Wren told him “not to move,” and the two men got into a struggle over the gun.
“William Wren said that he took the decedent’s gun,” says the affidavit. “Then, he and the decedent fought over the gun. During the struggle, the gun went off and the decedent was shot multiple times. William Wren said that he exited the vehicle while still in possession of the decedent’s gun and fled on foot.”
During the arraignment, defense attorney Ronald Horton challenged the credibility of the witness who told police Wren was in possession of a gun as he entered Rivers’ car. Horton asked Judge-Magistrate Karen Howze to approve a motion to dismiss the case due to lack of sufficient evidence.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean Tonolli, the prosecutor in the case, disputed Horton’s assessment. He said the evidence was strong and overwhelming and the witness was reliable — and that Wren’s claim that the gun belonged to Rivers lacked credibility.
Howze denied the defense motion, saying she found “substantial probability that Mr. Wren did commit this offense.” She denied a second motion by Horton that Wren be released into the custody of his mother, ordering that Wren be held without bond.
She set a preliminary hearing for Feb. 10, where Judge Herbert Dixon would take over the case and determine whether Wren was eligible for release while awaiting trial.
“The motive sounds like robbery, and it’s unclear if the victim was killed because he was gay,” said Dale Edwin Sanders, a gay attorney who practices criminal law in D.C.
“One unanswered question is whether the police found any pot in the car or in the possession of the victim,” Sanders said. “If there was no pot, the police would have to look closer at a possible gay angle. What brought them together in the car at that time?”
District of Columbia
Sinners and Saints bar vandalized in suspected anti-LGBTQ hate crime
Blade spoke with General Manager Blair Nixon after incident
On Thursday, shattered glass, broken doors, and homophobic slurs were discovered in the entryway of Adams Morgan queer bar Sinners and Saints (2309 18th St. N.W.) Images of the destruction were posted to the bar’s Instagram, and news of the break-in began to spread.
The Washington Blade sat down with one of the co-partners and general manager of Sinners and Saints, Blair Nixon, to discuss the break-in and the overwhelming response from the LGBTQ community.
“Our door was broken-so the glass was shattered,” Nixon told the Blade when describing the damage done to the space. “They wrote a slur on our wall, and unfortunately-we’re not sure to the extent that it was, but there’s a bunch of inventory missing from our liquor closet. It does seem like it was targeted because of what they wrote on the wall.”
Nixon, who has been with Washington’s only QTBIPOC (queer, trans, Black, Indigenous, and people of color) bar since its opening last August, explained that upon learning of the break-in, fear was his first reaction.
“It was really scary,” Nixon said. “To know that somebody was in our space, vandalizing it-it was very scary and honestly, devastating.”
He went on to say that if it weren’t for the restaurant above Sinners and Saints, La Grotta, they wouldn’t have known until hours later.
“We found out because of the restaurant upstairs that we’re partnered with,” he said. “The electricity to the entire building was turned off-including apartments and the restaurant above us. Whoever broke in went into the closet that’s outside of the building and turned the electricity off to the entire building. When the restaurant owners got there, they tried to figure out why there wasn’t any electricity. They went downstairs and saw the shattered glass, the door broken, and the slur on the wall.”
Once Sinners and Saints staff arrived to survey the damage, they posted the images to their Instagram and called the Metropolitan Police Department. Nixon was grateful for both MPD and the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs’s quick reaction.
“We were really happy with the response,” Nixon said. “The mayor’s office reached out relatively quickly, and I had a conversation with them, and the police came shortly afterwards, and they did a really good job. So we’re very appreciative of the response. They took a statement, they looked at the damage, took photos of everything, and made a report.”
“They actually sent, like, the entire department,” he added. “There were multiple police officers, multiple detectives, and the LGBTQ liaison came a little bit later. In general, I just really appreciated the response overall.”
The Blade obtained a copy of the filed police report, which described the break-in as a felony-more specifically, MPD considered it a second-degree burglary. MPD’s report also classified the break-in and subsequent graffiti as having “a hate bias or motivation” against sexual minorities who own and frequent the bar.
Unfortunately, there were no cameras on the premises at the time of the break-in, which MPD estimates happened sometime between 2-6 p.m., but Sinners and Saints were able to obtain footage from nearby businesses.
“We did have some camera footage from the hostel next door, and we submitted that to law enforcement,” he said. “We’re just going to let them do their investigation, and I don’t want to make any suppositions about what might have happened.”
When asked what he believed motivated the assailant(s), Nixon didn’t offer a definitive answer. He suggested it was likely someone hostile to LGBTQ businesses in Washington but assured the Blade that Sinners and Saints would not back down-and that the LGBTQ community stands firmly behind them.
“I don’t want to make any statements about what we think happened. We’re going to let the police do their job. But, as the only QTBIPOC bar in D.C., I think it’s important to note that we’re still here. We’re not going to close. We appreciate the support of our community, and I think that overall, it’s really important that we’re a safe space for the underserved and marginalized communities in D.C. Given that D.C. has, you know, one of the largest queer populations-but there aren’t very many spaces for the communities that we serve-we’re very proud to serve those communities. And we aren’t going to stop.”
Nixon had one critique for MPD, but was overall with their quick response.
“We hope that law enforcement would have a greater presence in Adams Morgan,” he said. “I think that, especially from talking to other establishment owners and bar owners, there’s definitely been some increased issues in Adams Morgan, and we hope that that doesn’t continue. We talked to the Mayor’s Office about it and to the police when they came-to have a greater presence in Adams Morgan.”
Since its opening, Nixon said the support from the QTBIPOC and broader LGBTQ community felt strong-but now, after the break-in, that connection has only grown stronger.
“We opened in August of last year, and we think that D.C. in general has really responded to our mission, and the community has really shown up for us-just like the same way that we’ve shown up for them.”
That community support for Sinners and Saints, Nixon said, extends past the diverse group of QTBIPOC people buying shots and tipping 20 percent nightly. Some of the city’s LGBTQ organizations showed up, offering to help. One of those community members who reached out owns a popular gay bar just up 18th Street.
“The response has been really strong, and we definitely appreciate the support. A few of the other LGBT bar owners in Adams Morgan actually stopped by in person. We really appreciated that Dave Perruzza from Pitchers came by, and just in general that the community has been rallying around us.”
On Thursday night, Sinners and Saints opened as planned and hosted their “Sapphic Sailor Moon” party. Despite the break-in, the LGBTQ community came out to support them.
“I was working-actually bartending,” Nixon said. “I wasn’t originally supposed to be working, but I thought it was important for all the partners to be there. So everyone that’s involved in Sinners and Saints’ leadership team came out. Obviously, we were dealing with the incident, but being there the entire night, we thought that the response from the community was really strong. We wanted to make sure that we posted on social media the fact that we were still open, because a lot of people were contacting us and asking if we were going to be continuing on, if we were going to close. We thought it was really important to make sure that we were there and still open and still available.”
That community, Nixon said, includes members of the LGBTQ population who are often overlooked-which makes the attack on a space intentionally dedicated to them-particularly trans people and people of color-even more painful.
“I think that DC in general, as one of the cities with the biggest queer populations, has adopted the LGBT community in general-and it’s great. However, the adoption of people of color and the overall QTBIPOC community, you know, our trans community, hasn’t been the same. It’s super important to us to make sure that that community is protected and that there are safe spaces for them, and that’s what our core mission is. We never want that to stop. The most important thing is that the safe space for those marginalized and underrepresented communities continues. And I would hope that the acceptance of the community that we serve continues-and is just as important as the acceptance of the LGBT community as a whole.”
If you have any information about the break in, please contact MPD at (202) 727-9099. Sinners and Saints has set up a GoFundMe page for repairs. It can be accessed here.
District of Columbia
Adams Morgan queer bar broken into and vandalized
Sinners and Saints targeted Thursday night
On Thursday night, Sinners and Saints, a popular queer bar in Adams Morgan and the only QTBIPOC (queer, trans, Black, Indigenous and people of color) bar in D.C., was broken into and vandalized with homophobic slurs, according to a recent Instagram post from the establishment.
“Last night, our bar — the only QTBIPOC bar in DC — was broken into and hate-crimed during DC Black Pride, a time meant for celebration, resilience, and joy — and on the eve of WorldPride 2025. We are heartbroken, but we are not broken,” the post read.
The statement was accompanied by a slideshow showing the damage: the front iron gate door and its glass counterpart shattered, glass strewn across the floor, and the word “FAGGOT” scrawled in black ink on the wall.
“This space exists to protect and celebrate queer and trans BIPOC communities, and this attack only strengthens our resolve,” the post continued. “We will NOT be silenced. We will NOT be intimidated. We will NOT back down.”
“To those who tried to harm us: hate fuels our defiance. To our community: we see you, we love you, and we will continue fighting for you. Sinners and Saints is resistance. We will rebuild. We will STAY OPEN. And we will keep our doors — and hearts — wide open for all who need refuge.”
They ended the message with a call to action: “Stand with us. Share this. Show up. We keep us safe.”
“What happened was truly disheartening, but we won’t be silenced,” co-owner Fazeel Ashraf told the Washington Blade. “QTBIPOC spaces are so important in this current political climate. I’d love to do a phone interview with one of my fellow partners.”
Despite the heartbreak surrounding the break-in and what Ashraf described as “a hate crime,” the LGBTQ community quickly rallied in the comments, offering support and assistance.
“Please let us know how we can help!” wrote Nik Battaglia. “I’m a handy queer with handy queer friends — I can fix shit, paint shit, and am happy to stand guard outside.”
Even national figures chimed in.
“RuPaul’s Drag Race” star Laganja Estranja commented, “Incredible response! I believe in you. Sending so much love and strength.”
The Blade reached out to the Metropolitan Police Department regarding the break-in but has not received a response.
To view the damage, and some of the LGBTQ community’s supportive statements, visit the Sinners and Saints’s Instagram page.
The Comings & Goings column is about sharing the professional successes of our community. We want to recognize those landing new jobs, new clients for their business, joining boards of organizations and other achievements. Please share your successes with us at [email protected].
The Comings & Goings column also invites LGBTQ college students to share their successes with us. If you have been elected to a student government position, gotten an exciting internship, or are graduating and beginning your career with a great job, let us know so we can share your success.
Congratulations to Raffi Freedman-Gurspan on being appointed Associate Director, Federal Funding & Infrastructure Office, at the Massachusetts Executive Office for Administration & Finance. Freedman-Gurspan will be returning to her hometown of Boston and joining Gov. Maura Healey’s Administration. Freedman-Gurspan served in both the Obama and Biden administrations as well as worked in LGBTQ and redistricting advocacy during her 11 years in D.C.
Freedman-Gurspan was the first openly transgender person on the White House staff when she worked for President Obama. She most recently served at the U.S. Department of Transportation in former Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s office, as Deputy Director of Public Engagement. Previously she worked with the National Redistricting Action Fund/The All On The Line Campaign, as Deputy States Director. She worked for the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) as Director of External Relations. In the Obama White House, she worked in the Office of Public Engagement, as Senior Associate Director. She was the White House Liaison to the LGBTQ community responsible for management of all public inquiries on matters regarding LGBTQ people, including recommending public responses to senior leadership, assisting in drafting administration talking points, and coordinating stakeholder engagement with the White House offices. She worked with the White House, Presidential Personnel Office (PPO), as Outreach and Recruitment Director.
Prior to that she was on the staff of Commonwealth of Massachusetts, House of Representatives Office of State Rep. Carl Sciortino, as legislative director, and worked for the City of Somerville, Health Department, Office of Commissions, Somerville, Mass., as LGBTQ Liaison.
Freedman-Gurspan served on the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, the Presidentially Appointed Council; and as a member, and Board Member, Boston University, College of Arts and Sciences, Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies Program.
She earned her bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Norwegian, concentration in Nordic Studies, from St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minn.
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