In brief:
Seventeen people died in five incidents in DC this week, including Aaron Alexis, who killed 12 people at Washington’s Navy Yard on Monday before being killed by police.
Those killed at the Navy Yard are:
- Mary Francis Knight, 51
- Gerald L. Read, 58
- Martin Bodrog, 54
- Richard Michael Ridgell, 52
- Arthur Daniels, 51
- Michael Arnold, 59
- Sylvia Frasier, 53
- Kathy Gaarde, 62
- John Roger Johnson, 73
- Frank Kohler, 50
- Kenneth Bernard Proctor, 46
- Vishnu Pandit, 61
For more details, see “The Day After the Navy Yard Shooting: Essential Reads” and “The Navy Yard Shooting: What We Know Now.”
Four separate homicides also claimed the lives of four DC men.
- Awele Olisemeka, 24, died Monday after being assaulted the previous Saturday. Olisemeka was found unconscious in 900 block of Madison Street NW. He was transported to a local hospital where he was listed in critical condition and diagnosed with multiple skull fractures. He was pronounced dead at approximately 4:40 p.m. Monday.
- On Tuesday, Robert Spencer, 21, was killed in a shooting in Southwest DC. Spencer was found unconscious with a gunshot wound in the 100 Block of Irvington Street at about 10:22 p.m. He was transported to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead.
- Timothy Benjamin, 58, was fatally stabbed just after midnight Saturday morning. Benjamin, a Northwest DC resident, was found “lying on his back in the rear of the 5300 block of Georgia Avenue NW suffering from apparent multiple stab wounds,” police said in a statement.
- Rockwell John Flint, 45, of Northwest DC, died Friday. He had been injured in a fight in an Adams Morgan bar about three weeks ago. WJLA reports that Flint was the “Good Samaritan” was injured while trying to subdue an unruly and violent bar patron.
Gary Maye and Immanuel Swann pleaded guilty this week in connection with the stabbing death of 18-year-old Olijawon Griffin at the Woodley Park Metro Station in Nov. 2012. Maye and Swann are the fifth and sixth people to plead guilty in the case. The three remaining co-defendants are expected to stand trial Monday.
After four weeks of deliberations, jurors in the “21st and Vietnam” murder trial found Jekwan Smith, Stanley Moghalu and Johnnie Harris innocent of some of the most serious charges faced by the men: Moghalu and Harris were found innocent of murder and firearms charges in connection with the December 2011 shooting death of Steven Moore, Smith and Harris, charged with the death of Isaiah Sheffield, were found innocent of first-degree premeditated murder while armed. Smith and Harris could still be convicted of second-degree murder or voluntary manslaughter while armed in connection with Sheffield’s death. Jurors continue to deliberate on remaining charges in the case.
Deangelo Williams pleaded innocent Friday to charges of first-degree murder while armed, assault and related weapons offenses in connection with the 2011 shooting death of 18-year-old Lucki Pannell.
Herbert Hayes was sentenced to 40 years in prison for the May 2012 stabbing death of John Wesley Griffin. The sentencing was a significant and substantial departure from guidelines which recommended 15 to 26 years in prison. “You’ve just been committing violent crimes for 25 years. I have no confidence at all that you will ever change your ways,” Canan told Hayes at sentencing.
Darryl Matthews was ordered released Friday from a halfway house where he was held while a grand jury investigates a charge that he fatally stabbed 60-year-old Hayes Osei Dennis in July 2012. He was placed into the High Intensity Supervision Program.
Michael A. Smith, a 33-year-old Suitland, Md. resident, was charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy and other charges in connection with the March shooting death of Paul Aime Tanoh Danzo outside the Balletto nightclub in Northwest DC. The US Attorney’s Office said Saturday that Smith was arraigned Friday and that the charges were part of a case that initially charged him as being an accessory after the fact.
