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Murder cases are being closed faster than ever, DC Police Chief Cathy Lanier said Friday. “The time it takes us to close a case has dropped dramatically.”
She credits cooperation between law enforcement, prosecutors and the community with quick arrests, many happening at or near the crime scene.Read more
“We used to be known as the murder capital of the world and the city of unsolved homicides,” DC Police Chief Cathy Lanier said at a press conference marking the end of a year that has seen the District’s murder rate drop to its lowest level since the early 1960s.
“Our detectives and our police officers have done an amazing job in turning that around,” Lanier added. “We are no longer either one of those things.”
Mayor Vincent Gray joined Lanier at MPD headquarters today for a far-reaching roundup of the year in crime.
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MPD announced today that William Sony Hunt is a suspect in the death of George White.
Hunt is a 55-year-old black male believed to be in New York, MPD said. There is a warrant for his arrest.
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MPD today named John William Smith Jr a suspect in the stabbing death of Elaine Coleman.
Smith is a 46-year-old black male believed to be in Baltimore, MPD said. There is a warrant for his arrest.
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At a press conference today at MPD headquarters, Police Chief Cathy Lanier and DC Mayor Vincent Gray both touted the city’s 94 percent homicide case closure rate for the year.
Gray called the number “astounding.”
Said Lanier, “We used to be known as the murder capital of the world and the city of unsolved homicides. Our detectives and our police officers have done an amazing job in turning that around. We are no longer either one of those things.”
But understanding where this number comes from is important: 37 of the homicides counted toward the year’s closure rate were not committed in 2011.
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Each Friday, Homicide Watch brings you a list of upcoming hearings in the cases we follow. All hearings are scheduled for 9:30 a.m. unless otherwise noted. To add an item to the listing, email homicidewatchdc [at] gmail.com. To see scheduled court hearings beyond next week, see our calendar.
See next week’s listings after the jump.
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Beginning in July and continuing through the fall, transgender activists sounded an alarming message: the District was becoming a dangerous place for members of their community.
Early in the morning of July 20, 23-year-old LaShay McLean was fatally shot on the 6100 block of Dix Street. Less than two months later, on Sept. 10, Gaurav Gopalan was beaten to death just a few blocks from his home in Columbia Heights. At the time he was killed, Gopalan, 35, was dressed as a woman. It was a side of himself that friends said he was just beginning to embrace and explore.
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Stephen Barnes was ordered held today on suspicion of first-degree murder while armed in connection with a shooting that killed one man and injured a teenage girl.
Charging documents in the case against Barnes allege that the victim, Stephon Way, may have been the instigator in the fatal confrontation between the men. The shooting took place at a Benning Road NE gas station at about 4 a.m. on Dec. 10.
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A “feud” between Andre Wiggins and Terry Johnson has killed one of the men and landed the other in jail.
Charging documents against Johnson state that a feud between the two had escalated the day Wiggins was killed, perhaps leading to his death.
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Tanya Brice was on the phone with her mother one evening when she realized that her boyfriend, James Lott, had been gone a long time taking out the trash. She was saying as much to her mother when she heard shots.
“I thought they were firecrackers because it was close to Fourth of July,” she said.
James Lott- as pictured on an MPD reward poster
But when she looked outside she saw Lott lying next to the trash, blood was coming from his mouth and underneath his stomach.
That was the evening of June 24, 2007 and when detectives arrived at the house they began investigating Lott’s death immediately. The cause of death: gunshot wounds. The manner of death: homicide.
In the four and half years that have passed since that night, Brice has found little peace. The question she and the rest of Lott’s family are left with, who killed their son, their brother, their boyfriend, remains unanswered.
It’s one of hundreds of unsolved homicides in the District of Columbia.
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