Homicide Watch D.C.

A remorseful Deon Thornton was sentenced today to seven and a half years in prison for the stabbing death of his brother, Derrick Thornton, in Adams Morgan in February.

Judge Gerald Fisher, who imposed the minimum sentence for the voluntary manslaughter charge, said that he had searched for ways to make the sentence less strict, but that there was nothing that would allow him to sentence Deon Thornton to less than the 90 months described in sentencing guidelines.

“We have a lot of cases that come before us that are indeed very tragic. But I can think of none more tragic than this,” Fisher said in announcing his decision. “I know Deon Thornton will suffer for this for the rest of his life.”

Thornton pleaded guilty 11 days after being presented with the charge and declined to review the evidence against him. In court he said that the government’s belief that he stabbed his brother after they had been drinking and had an argument was correct.

Reading from a handwritten letter Friday, Deon Thornton apologized to his family: his grandmother, his daughter, his niece and sister-in-law, among other family members.

“I’m so so sorry,” he said. “I’m missing my only best friend, Derrick. I spend nights crying about my brother.”
Read more

Participants in HD Woodson's Poetry Slam in memory of Raheem Jackson with Jackson's mother NaClick Webb.

It’s been three weeks since 16-year-old Raheem Jackson was shot and killed in Southeast D.C. and two weeks since his funeral. On Thursday his classmates remembered him with poetry.

It was apparent at the poetry slam in H.D. Woodson Senior High School’s library that Jackson was many things to his classmates: a leader, a scholar, a basketball player, a poet.

“He would have been up here running the show,” English teacher Kevin Bjerregaard said.

But now Jackson is other things, too. A warning. And an inspiration.

At a poetry slam in Jackson’s memory in the school library on Thursday afternoon, 18-year-old 11th grader Ebonie Davis read her poem, “The Youth of DC,” that she dedicated to Jackson. In it she writes about the daily horrors of growing up in parts of D.C. or, as she puts it, “the little things, that put an end to our days.”

The poem was dedicated to Jackson, but “it could have been about anyone, basically,” Davis said. “It’s about what’s going on with the youth of DC. People are getting jumped. People are getting killed. It kills everybody’s spirit.”

But Jackson’s mother, NaClick Webb, told students Thursday that they must not let her son’s death impede their resolve to complete their education.

Jackson, an honors student, had been awarded a $50,000 scholarship by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and intended to go to college.

“Keep education first,” Webb said. “It’s the only way to get out.”

Seven students recited original poems at the poetry slam Thursday, and about 300 more were in the audience. Students said the slam was a good way to honor Jackson, whose poem “Benning Road at Night,” ran in the student newspaper printed just days after his death.

11th grader Ebonie Davis, first prize winner at the Raheem Jackson Poetry Slam

“I’m pretty sure he heard us,” 17-year-old Michael Clark said.

Winners of the slam were selected by the student newspaper staff.

The winners were:

For written poetry: Ebonie Davis, Dion Wheeler and Shanita Wilson.

For performance poetry: Ebonie Davis, Queen Dews and Shanita Wilson.

Davis’ poem in memory of Jackson follows.
Read more

A man found dead in Adams Morgan mid-day Easter Sunday has been identified by police as Santos Jobel Martinez Umansor, a 23-year-old Northwest D.C. man. He is believed to have been a victim of blunt force trauma.

No arrests have been made in the case.

MPD’s press release is after the jump.
Read more

A Northeast D.C. man was found dead inside a home in the 3400 block of Minnesota Ave., NE Tuesday and his death has been ruled a homicide.

A press release from MPD states that authorities responded to the home for a report of a foul odor. Once there they found 49 year-old Thomas Glenn Lipscomb unconscious and unresponsive. He was declared dead and is believed to have been a victim of blunt force trauma.

MPD’s press release is after the jump.
Read more

Eighteen-year-old Rapheal Briscoe was killed yesterday in Southeast D.C. when he pulled a BB gun resembling a .45 caliber semiautomatic handgun on police.

Briscoe is the third citizen to be killed by police in D.C. this year. What’s troubling about these cases is that there are no easy answers.

According to media reports and MPD’s press release, officers from a gun recovery unit “encountered” Briscoe in the 2400 block of Elvans Road SE at about 2:30 Tuesday afternoon. While WUSA reports that Briscoe “confronted” the officers, ABC7 reports that officers “confronted” Briscoe. The Washington Post reports:

Police sources said the gun unit officers saw the young man walking on Stanton Road near Elvans. Spotting a bulge in his waistband, they asked from their unmarked vehicle to talk to him. He began walking rapidly and then to run as the officers continued to try to get his attention, the sources said. He turned onto Elvans.

As police pursued, in the vehicle and on foot, the young man reached into his waistband and pulled out what appeared to be a gun, the sources said. They said an officer fired twice.

Why was Briscoe carrying a BB gun that looked so real, an officer couldn’t tell the difference between it and a handgun? Why did officers pursue him? And why did he flee? Finally, why did the officer shoot?

The tragedy of Briscoe’s death is that for the community, and particularly those who knew Briscoe, there may be no apparent way to “resolve” the loss of his life.
Read more

Rafael Briscoe of Southeast, DC, who was killed Tuesday afternoon by D.C. Metropolitan Police officers, is the third person to die in a D.C. officer involved shooting this year. On Feb 13, Davon Sealy, 19, of Gaithersburg, and Akeem Jamaal Cayo, 21, were fatally shot in a shoot-out with officers after a botched home invasion robbery.

MPD’s protocol for deadly use of force is here. A good discussion of the use of deadly force, it’s impacts and how communities respond is on the FBI’s website, here. That document describes the general tension surrounding officer-involved fatal shootings as follows:

Some members of the public seem to automatically assume that the officer did something wrong before any investigation into the incident begins. Conversely, others believe that if the police shot somebody, the individual must not have given the officer any choice.

Finally, we used information from MPD’s 2010 report on page 30, to compile this chart of deadly use of force in D.C. by year. (Note: there were none in 2010.)

Latisha Frazier

Judge William Jackson on Wednesday morning refused to compel authorities to search for the body of Latisha Frazier, a D.C. woman missing since August and believed have been killed and buried in a Virginia landfill.

Jackson said the possibility that defendant Brian Gaither was being untruthful in his statement that he placed Frazier’s body in a dumpster, or was remembering incorrectly on which day or in what dumpster he disposed of the body, coupled with the safety risk to those conducting a landfill search, made such a search inappropriate.

“The only notion that the decedent’s body is in a landfill comes from your client’s statement that he put it in a dumpster,” Jackson told Gaither’s defense attorney, public defender Eugene Ohm. “All of this effort [to search for the body] would be based on the assumption that Brian Gaither is telling the truth and has an accurate memory… the only compelling reason to search for the body is to provide some closure to the victim’s family and the Metropolitan Police Department, I believe, is aware of that.”
Read more

I was delighted to be selected earlier this year for Knight Digital Media Center’s News Entrepreneurs Bootcamp at the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business. I’ve been hard at work the past several weeks studying. More than any course I have ever taken, this one is important. If Homicide Watch is going to continue creating and providing this valuable resource, we must find a sustainable business model for the project.

The program will take me away from D.C. for twelve days next month. Instead of shuttering the site during that time, I’ve found an excellent journalism student from American University who has offered to pick up the coverage. Karen Frantz will be monitoring the city’s pulse for breaking crime news and attending scheduled court hearings, vigils and memorials.

But she, and I, need your help.

I’ve offered Karen $250 from my own savings to compensate her for her work (approximately 30 hours). I’d like to offer her more. Please consider making a donation to Homicide Watch to help make sure the site stays running smoothly while I’m away.

You can use the PayPal donation button on the center sidebar to pay by credit or debit card.

Karen Frantz is a graduate student in public policy journalism at American University in Washington, DC. She graduated in 2003 from the University of Virginia with a degree in psychology, and since that time worked in numerous fields, including documentary production, policy and communication. She currently interns at the Durango Herald, where she covers the Colorado delegation to the U.S. Congress.

Attorneys in the Latisha Frazier murder case will be in court tomorrow morning for a hearing on whether or not authorities are obligated to search for the missing teen’s body.

Frazier is believed to have been killed in a beating in a Southeast D.C. apartment in August. She was 18 years old at the time.

Five young people are currently being held on murder charges in her death. None have been indicted in the case.

Frazier’s body is believed to have been placed in a dumpster near the crime scene, then emptied with that dumpster’s contents into a Virginia landfill. MPD Chief Cathy Lanier has said a landfill search for Frazier is prohibitively expensive and dangerous.

But Eugene Ohm, defense attorney for one of the defendants, Brian Gaither, has sought to compel authorities to search for Frazier’s body, saying that Gaither can not have a fair trial without it.

“Mr. Gaither’s defense is significantly weakened because he is unable to inspect the decedent’s body. In this case, the govemment appears to allege an accidental killing and relies upon apparent witness testimony reporting three separate times and causes of death,” Ohm wrote in his motion compelling the search. “In such a case, the defense’s inability to inspect the decedent is devastating.”

Government prosecutors oppose the search, arguing that specialists believe it would cost a minimum of $2.5 million, require 25,000 truckloads of trash to be moved from the landfill search location and would last at least 164 days.
Read more

An unidentified man was found dead Sunday afternoon in the 2300 block of Ontario Road NW. Police said he appeared to have died after experiencing blunt force trauama to his head and body.

MPD’s press release is below.

( Washington, DC) – Detectives assigned to the Metropolitan Police Department’s Homicide Branch are investigating a homicide in the 2300 block of Ontario Road, NW.

On Sunday, April 24, 2011 at approximately 1:55 pm, members of the Third District responded to the 2400 block of 17th Street, NW for a man down. Upon arrival on scene, they discovered an unidentified male in the 2300 block of Ontario Road, NW suffering from trauma to the head and body. Personnel from DC Fire and Emergency Medical Services responded to the scene and determined the victim had no signs of life. The victim was later pronounced dead by a member of the Office of Chief Medical Examiner.

Anyone with information about this case is asked to call the police at (202) 727-9099 or 1-888-919-CRIME (1-888-919-2746).
Read more