Homicide Watch D.C.

Should cases against those accused of breaking the law in D.C. be prosecuted by a local elected official or federal authorities?

On Tuesday D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton introduced a bill in Congress to allow D.C. residents to elect a District Attorney. She said,

There is no law enforcement issue of greater importance to D.C. residents, or on which they have less say, than the prosecution of local crimes. A U.S. attorney has no business prosecuting the local criminal laws of a jurisdiction, an anomaly from the past that is out of place in 21st century home-rule D.C. The goal of the legislation is to put the District of Columbia on par with every other local jurisdiction in attention to its local criminal laws.

Another batch of charging documents in the Latisha Frazier murder case follow after the jump.

Former USAO Prosecutor Tad DiBiase pointed out that the Frazier case is D.C.’s fourth “no body” homicide case to be prosecuted.
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Derrick Rawls. Rashid Paul. D’Angelo Thompson.

All three men died in shootings on the streets of Ward Four in the past two weeks and now Councilwoman Muriel Bowser is saying that at least Rawls’ death may have been gang related.

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This just in from Metro PD. We’ll follow it and try to bring you more soon.

Good afternoon community,

The MPD is currently investigating skeletal remains found in the wooded area in the 2500 Block of Naylor Road S.E.

There are no street closures as it relates to this investigation.

Thank you
Cmdr. Robert J. Contee, III

Metro Police tonight identified the man killed in a Petworth alley late Friday as 20-year-old Derrick Rawls.

Memories of Rawls posted on Facebook and Twitter follow the jump.
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Metro PD just released a statement identifying 20-year-old Derrick Rawls of Northwest, DC as the victim in last night’s fatal shooting.

(Washington, DC)-Detectives from the Metropolitan Police Department’s Homicide Branch are investigating a fatal shooting which occurred in the 4500 block of 8th Street, NW.

On Friday, February 4, 2011, at approximately 9:20 pm, units from the Fourth District responded to the 4500 block of 8th Street, NW, to investigate reports of the sounds of gunshots. Upon their arrival, officers canvassed the area and located the victim in the alley of the 4500 block of 8th Street, NW, suffering from gunshot wounds and found him to be unconscious and unresponsive. Personnel from DC Fire and Emergency Medical Services responded to the scene and determined the victim had no signs consistent with life. The victim was subsequently transported to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner pending an autopsy.

The decedent has been identified as 20 year old Derrick Rawls of Northwest, DC.
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In brief:

• Kevin Lamont Clark held in murder of Ricardo Vondell Minger
• Four arrested on murder charges in the case of missing 18-year-old D.C. woman Latisha Frazier
• City Paper asks “Who was Ali Mohammed?”
• Latonya Hall charged with the February 2010 death of Michaeldeon Talley
• Man killed Friday night in Petworth alley

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Following are scheduled court appearances for murder cases. This information is current as of Friday, Feb. 4 at 7:30 p.m. and will be re-verified throughout the week. Please remember that court dates can change, even at the last minute. To view the docket of a case please go to the D.C. Courts website and search by the defendant’s name. To add an item to the calendar, email homicidewatchdc [at] gmail.com.
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Metro PD posted the following message on the Fourth District Listserve at 10:50 Friday night:

Units received a call for sounds of gunshots in the 4500 blk 8th Street, NW. Upon arrival, an unconscious adult male victim was located in an alley suffering from apparent gunshot wounds. The male is deceased. This case is being investigated by the Homicide Branch. We are asking anyone with information please call 1-888-919-CRIM(E).

According to the Washington Post, the man was found at about 9:30 p.m. in an alley near the intersection of Allison and 8th streets in Northwest D.C.

By all accounts so far, Latisha Frazier’s last hours were brutal. Accused of stealing from a neighborhood friend, the 18-year-old mother was beaten, stomped, bound, taped, gagged, prodded and choked. Her head was covered with a sheet. She was tossed into a closet. When she finally died, her body was moved from room to room while her killers discussed how to dispose of her. They decided to dismember her, but her killers could not bring themselves to complete the job because of the stench of her flesh.

In her press photo, the same one used on the missing persons fliers that were distributed in the weeks after her August disappearance, Frazier is a beaming teen in a royal blue dress. In a Washington Post report, her family said there was no indication that she had any trouble in her life. Frazier, a Crossland High School grad, was working fulltime at McDonalds, thinking of going back to school, and was a dedicated mother to three-year-old daughter Diamond.

Said her sister, Latoya Frazier,

I keep wondering to myself: Was there something I missed? Was she in danger? Was she unhappy? It just doesn’t make any sense, because she would never leave her daughter. They were attached at the hip.

Over the past two weeks, Metro Police have arrested five people and charged them in Frazier’s death. Though her body has not been found, police believe she was killed on Aug. 2, the day she disappeared. Criminal complaints against four of the defendants include confessions to the killing.

Frazier’s friends and family, who only weeks ago were spending their evenings passing out fliers and begging for information, now spend their time in courtrooms; four of the five defendants were arraigned just this week.
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