The District of Columbia recorded 108 homicides in 2014, two more than last year. It is the second consecutive year that the number of killings has risen.
Three of those cases were ruled justifiable homicide by citizen: Cortez Carter, Michael Hrizuk, and Anthony Cornell Jones. MPD does not count those deaths as murders, meaning its official count is 105.
Homicides reached a 50-year low in 2012. That year, MPD counted 88 homicides (excluding four ruled self-defense, for a total of 92).
Five children were counted among this year’s victims, including three infants. Two of those infants never had names. Both died late last year, and their deaths — allegedly at the hands of their mothers — were ruled homicides this year. Raj’saun Tyrik Brown died in October, and his father is awaiting trial. Jonathon Malik Adams, 17, was stabbed to death in February.
The most common age for a victim was 22; 43 victims were in their 20s.
Two victims — LeRoi Elliott and Lucile Proctor — were in their 80s. Elliott, at 88, was the year’s oldest murder victim.
Ninety-one victims were male; 17 were female. About one-third of victims were found dead; the rest were taken to hospitals.
Shootings remain the most common means of homicide: 73 victims died from gunshot wounds this year. Seventeen were stabbed. (More: What we know about DC’s deadliest guns)
At least 66 victims were black. Three were Hispanic. Two were white. (The rest are unknown at this time.)
Forty-seven homicides happened in Southeast DC, the most of any quadrant, followed by 36 in Northeast, 23 in Northwest and two in Southwest.
More than half of all homicides happened in Wards 7 and 8.
Police arrested or identified 63 suspects this year in cases that Homicide Watch DC has covered.
Two of those named died before they could be prosecuted.
Six suspects are female; 57 are male.
Fifty-four suspects are black, four are hispanic and one is white.
More than half — 34 — of those arrested this year were in their 20s at the time, by far the most common age group. Thirteen were in their 30s.
As with victims, the most common age for a murder suspect is 22.
This year’s closures include 15 prior year cases (some predating Homicide Watch).
