Victims of South Capitol Street Shooting Remembered One Year Later
Mayor Vincent Gray speaks at a vigil Wednesday evening, marking the one year anniversary of one of D.C.'s most fatal shootings.
Outside a broken-down house at the corner of South Capitol Street and Brandywine Avenue in Southeast D.C. on Wednesday night, D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray urged more than 100 people crowded under umbrellas and ponchos to turn their grief at the one year anniversary of one of D.C.’s most fatal shootings, into action.
“Let’s use this as a constructive experience to try to stop the violence,” he said. “I hope we get to the day when we have not one murder in the city.”
Around him dozens of young people milled about, wearing t-shirts and keychains in memory of the friends they lost almost exactly one year ago at that same spot: Brishell Jones, 16; DaVaughn Boyd, 18; William Jones III, 19; and Tavon Nelson, 17. They stayed behind while the victim’s families joined Gray and other community members at a nearby church for community conversation and dinner. Despite the rain, they preferred beer to proclamations.
If they had joined their friends families, they would have heard Vincent Gray pledging that those killed on March 30 of last year did not die in vain. They would have heard Police Chief Cathy Lanier promise to “work harder.” And they would have heard Brishell Jones’ mother, Nardyne Jefferies, ask the community to join her in a single task in memory of her daughter.
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On Anniversary of Shooting, Catania Introduces “South Capitol Street Tragedy Memorial Act of 2011”
On the one year anniversary of one of D.C.’s most violent killings, the families of those killed stood with D.C. Councilman David Catania at the Wilson Building to introduce legislation addressing youth behavioral health services.
The bill, titled the South Capitol Street Tragedy Memorial Act of 2011, would create a comprehensive multi-age city approach to screening and services for mental health in D.C. schools. Catania said the bill will create a program that replaces a “patchwork” of existing programs that address truancy, behavioral problems, and juvenile delinquency.
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Race, Homicide and Trauma
This report comes from Oakland, Calif. this morning, but it’s a good read for D.C., too.
Oakland family traumatized by violence, death
Oakland Tribune | Mar 30, 2011
According to a recent study from the Violence Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., young black men are 14 times as likely to die violent deaths as their white counterparts. Latino men are 10 times as likely to suffer the same fate. The same study found that Alameda is the second deadliest county in California for young men of color on a per-capita basis.
D.C. Residents Make up More than a Quarter of Homicide Victims in PG County this Year
Eight D.C. residents have been victims of homicide this year in Prince George’s County, making up more than a quarter of those killed in the county since a spike in homicides that began in January.
According to a round-up of PG County homicides this year by D.C. Russell at Gory Prince George’s, the first victim of the year was 26-year-old Maurice Valentine, killed Jan. 6.
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This Year's Homicide Victims
For those keeping count, 24-year-old Jose Hernandez-Romero was D.C.’s 21st homicide victim this year. Last year at this time, there had been 20 homicides.
Find a spreadsheet of this year’s crimes after the jump.
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Mental Evaluation Ordered For Defendant Accused of Killing Father/Son Business Pair in NE DC Robbery
The case against 26-year-old Christian Taylor was put on hold today after Taylor told Judge Thomas Motley that he didn’t understand the charges against him or what was being done in court.
Taylor was in court to be arraigned on first-degree murder charges in the shooting deaths of 32-year-old Li-Jen Chih and his 59-year-old father, Ming-Kun Chih, killed during a robbery at their wholesale clothing business in Northeast D.C. last June. The Grand Jury has indicted Taylor on six counts of first degree murder in the case, as well as armed robbery and weapons possession charges. He declined to enter a plea.
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William Cordova, 26, sentenced in racketeering case including D.C. murder
From the US Attorney’s Office
MS-13 Member Sentenced to Life in Prison Plus 150 Years on Federal Racketeering Charges - Crimes Included Murder of One Victim, Maiming of Another -
WASHINGTON - William Cordova, 26, also known as Centinella or Mario, was sentenced today to life in prison plus 150 years for his role in a series of crimes, including a murder, committed by the MS-13 gang in the Washington, D.C. area in 2006 and 2007.
The sentence, on federal racketeering charges, was announced by U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr., John P. Torres, Special Agent in Charge of the Washington Office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Office of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), and Cathy L. Lanier, Chief of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).
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Jury finds Justin Navarro Guilty of Murder, but not of Hate Crime
Jury rejects hate crime charge in gay murder
washingtonblade.com | Mar 23, 2011
A D.C. Superior Court jury on Tuesday found District resident Justin L. Navarro, 25, guilty of first-degree murder while armed for stabbing a gay man at least 15 times in the back seconds after police said he referred to the victim as a “faggot.”
But the jury declined a request by prosecutors that it designate the Nov. 6, 2009 murder of District resident Kevin Massey, 31, as an anti-gay hate crime.
“The U.S. Attorney’s office had charged the defendant with committing this murder because of Mr. Massey’s sexual orientation, but the jury did not make that finding beyond a reasonable doubt,” the office said in a statement.
South Capitol Street Anniversary Vigil in Photos
Jordan Howe’s shooting death on March 22, 2010 over a missing bracelet sparked a spree of violence that left a total of four people dead and injured six more. The vigil Tuesday where Howe was killed marked the start of a week of remembrance for all the victims: Brishell Jones, 16; DaVaughn Boyd, 18; William Jones III, 19; and Tavon Nelson, 17. They were killed March 30, 2010 following Howe’s funeral.
See a photo slideshow from the vigil on Flickr.
Photos by Dallas Lillich
