washingtonexaminer.com | Feb 23, 2011
Police have long been pushing to quell the violent exchanges between the two Petworth gangs that roam Georgia Avenue. Among the highest-profile shootings was the August slaying of Neil Godleski, a 31-year-old Catholic University student who was gunned down in Sherman Circle. His killing led to a community outcry. Since then, Police Chief Cathy Lanier has been meeting with community members to inform them of the department’s efforts to stem the tide of daytime gunfire exchanges and robberies. On Wednesday morning, she took that presentation to Mayor Vince Gray and the D.C. Council, presenting the department’s gang-fighting efforts during the elected officials’ monthly breakfast meeting.
“In Ward 4 we have a list of 39 people most likely to be shot or shoot,” Lanier said. She added, “Between 65 and 70 percent are under some sort of court-ordered supervision.” Many of the gang members have had 13 or 14 arrests for robbery and carjacking, the chief said.
In June 1985, D.C. Metropolitan Police Deputy Chief Alfonso Gibson told the Associated Press that the recent killing of 49-year-old Catherine Fuller was “probably one of the most brutal murders that ever took place in Washington.”
Catherine Fuller’s life ended as the sun was setting on Oct. 1, 1984. As she walked home from a grocery store, a group of young toughs followed her. They murdered her in a garage. The crime attracted scant notice.
The police arrested a suspect three days later, one more on Nov. 29, two on Dec. 4, five on Dec. 9 and, intermittently, more suspects as the investigation continued.
The last arrest was May 22.
Sixteen young men, ages ranging from 17 to 22, stand accused of felony murder—a slaying that occurs in the commission of a felony, in this case robbery.
“To the best of my knowledge, it is the largest number of arrests in a single homicide in the city’s history,” said Lt. William White III, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Police Department.
Now the cases of the seven men finally convicted in Fuller’s death are under scrutiny.
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Washington Post | Feb 18, 2011
Detective Milton Norris earned the Homicide Detective of the Year, achieving a 300 percent clearance rate (according to FBI Uniformed Crime Reports standards), by closing five cases in 2010, which included slayings from 2006, 2007 and 2009. Norris is a member of one of the top performing homicide squads in the unit, which are supervised by Lt. Ozetta Posey, whom the Post profiled Her two squads finished 2010 with the highest closure percentages (Squad 6 at 93 percent and Squad 1 at 87 percent).
This weekend’s shooting death of teen Lucki Pannell prompted Homicide Watch D.C. reader and frequent commenter Tony Smith to ask “What is the DC death tally this year?”
This morning the tally hit 14. But homicides are about more than numbers.
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DC Superior Courts website seems to still be down this morning; I’ll keep checking in and do Week Ahead once it’s up and running again. In the meantime, remember that you can check our calendar. All hearings are at 9:30 a.m.
A jury yesterday convicted D.C. resident Marcus C. Silver of manslaughter while armed in the shooting death of 26-year-old Shadawnchea Gardner in the unit block of Hawaii Avenue NE on March 10, 2010.
Silver, 30, is expected in court April 22 for sentencing.
According to a news release from the United States Attorney’s Office,
According to the government’s evidence, members of the Fourth District of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) were called about 7:40 p.m. on March 10, 2010 to the unit block of Hawaii Avenue NE. Upon arrival, they found the victim, Shadawnchea Gardner, 26, outside an apartment building. He was suffering from a single gunshot wound to the back of the head, and died later that night.
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How did Homicide Watch get started? How do you do your reporting? What are you working on? Who else is doing this work? Is this a blog or a news site?
I get a lot of questions about Homicide Watch, from readers, people I meet in court, and other journalists. I answer them as I can, but the reality is that what we’re doing here can be a little hard to explain. We are information-oriented, reporting a very traditional newsroom beat: crime. We do not have any goal, other than helping build a more informed community. But we don’t operate out of a newsroom (unless you consider our newsroom my kitchen… or the chairs in the halls of the Moultrie Courthouse) and we use a lot of techniques to tell stories in lots of different ways.
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According to multiple media reports this morning, one person was killed and another seriously injured in a shoot-out with Metro Police in a botched robbery attempt near Catholic University last night. Neither person has been identified by police.
In a message on the Fifth District Listserve Commander Lamar Greene wrote:
On February 13, 2011 at approximately 2230 hours Fifth District units were dispatched to the 1000 block of Irving street ne for masked subjects entering a home, burglary in the first degree. Officers arrived almost immediately and confirmed a home invasion, officers surrounded the home when suddenly the suspects began to exit the house from the rear while firing weapons at the officers, the officers while in fear for their lives returned fire striking the suspects. Two of the suspects were transported to area hospitals, another suspect was taken into custody as well. All three suspects will be examined in relation to other crimes in the area.
A round-up of early morning coverage of the case follows the jump.
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Kyree Seabrook, killed Nov. 19, 2009
Metro Police have arrested Terrell Kelly, 26, of Southeast, D.C, and charged him with the killing of Kyree Seabrook in November 2009.
Metro PD’s press release follows after the jump.
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Latisha Frazier most likely died on Aug. 2 of last year, according to court documents. On Jan. 23, her case changed from that of a missing person to a suspected homicide, and 23-year-old Brian Gaither became the first of five suspects arrested in connection with her death.
When this year’s murders are tallied, Frazier will be counted as a 2011 homicide. Last year’s number, 131, won’t change.
This might seem counterintuitive. A case becomes a homicide, and is counted as such in a host of official statistics, when the District’s medical examiner rules it a homicide. In our records at Homicide Watch, we track the date of each incident, date of death and the the date a case is ruled a homicide. These are usually the same day, but not always.
Consider the case of Demetrius Ormon Dempsey:
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