Homicide Watch D.C.

As March draws to a close I’d like to mark an important anniversary: Homicide Watch D.C. has been reporting and publishing crime news for six months.

My husband, Chris, and I started working on the site in September 2009 with a lot of brainstorming, planning and research. We finally launched on WordPress at the very end of September 2010. While we had no idea at that point where the project would take us or how many hours (nights, weekends, early mornings) would go into the daily operations, being able to do this work every day has been more rewarding than we ever could have imagined.

What I like best is bringing you news that no one else has. By staying with cases from start to finish, we have made huge headway already in reporting and publishing important information about every homicide in our District. As good reporters know, the best way to get a story is to stay ahead of it; I do that every day attending court hearings and connecting with families, friends, co-workers and neighbors of homicide victims and suspects.
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UPDATE: The hearing has been scheduled for tomorrow (Friday) at ten a.m. in courtroom 318 (Judge Heidi Pasichow).

A preliminary hearing in the murder case against Keith Littlepage has been postponed this morning.

Littlepage is suspected of killing Selina Knight earlier this month.

We’ll update as we learn more.

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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 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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Note: An analytics report for the site showed multiple searches this week for information about Shabazz and I realized that I had neglected to post the charging documents in the case. My apologies. -Laura

Malik Shabazz, accused in the fatal assault on Demetrius Dempsey in June 2007, is due in court again May 9 for a felony status conference.

Shabazz, whose former name was Maurice Lee Yancey, is also known as Maurice Lee Mousey. According to charging documents in the case he is accused of stricking Dempsey in the face with a landscaping brick, causing blunt force trauma to Dempsey’s head. Dempsey was cared for at a skilled nursing home after the attack until his death of septic shock in December.

Shabazz is being held at D.C. Jail on suspicion of second-degree murder. The case has not yet been indicted by the Grand Jury.

Charging documents are available here.

This report comes from Oakland, Calif. this morning, but it’s a good read for D.C., too.

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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UPDATE: The Washington Post reports that the victim of this shooting was Bruce Parker, a 47-year-old D.C. man.

A shooting Monday night in the 1300 block of Bryant St Northeast left one man dead, WUSA and the Washington Post report.

The victim was a 47-year-old Silver Spring man, Fifth District Commander Andy Solberg said in a message on the district listserve. He added that the shooting took place near the intersection of Bryant St. and Downing St., NE.
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A Guatemalan man accused of shooting Jose Hernandez-Romero, 24, to death in a downtown D.C. bar early Sunday morning was ordered held without bond today and presented with a premeditated first-degree murder while armed charge in the case.

Alexis Pineda, also 24, appeared in court shackled and wearing a white jail jumpsuit. He did not speak during his hearing and used the services of a Spanish language interpretor to understand the proceedings.

Authorities believe both Pineda and Hernandez-Romero were at El Sauce, a small Latin American restaurant near Logan Circle when Pineda, after staring at Hernandez-Romero, asked “Que paso?” When Hernandez-Romero did not respond, Pineda “produced a handgun from his waistband in his right hand, and shot [Hernandez-Romero] at close range one time,” charging documents in the case allege.
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