A weekend story from the Washington Post tackles Mayor-elect Vincent Gray’s approach to DYRS and the recent attention on youths in the program who were victims or perpetrators of homicide this year.
As mayor, Gray (D) will inherit responsibility for all the problems of an agency that, improved as it is from five years ago, still struggles to supervise and rehabilitate the city’s youngest offenders. After the events of the past year, the city is again debating its obligation to help and its inclination to punish.
“It’s a balance; it’s got to be a balance,” Gray said in a brief interview last week. “I think the trick is finding what the right balance is.”
Friends and neighbors of Raj Patel began leaving flowers outside the Newton Avenue FoodMart where the 46-year-old was killed Saturday evening. BrooklandAvenue reports that a memorial was held today and a funeral is planned for Thursday.
ABC7 reports that was killed while his wife and son watched during a robbery at the family’s store.
A man who identified himself as Patel’s nephew said that Patel had been in the back of the store when the robbers arrived and accosted his wife and son, ordering them down on the floor. One of the thieves shot Patel as he emerged from a storage room, the nephew said.
“My uncle had no idea the robbery was happening,” said the nephew, who declined to identify himself for fear of retribution. “He walked out, and the guy fired at him and ran off.”
two gunmen entered the location dressed in dark clothing and attempted to rob the location. One of the suspects discharged a firearm striking the manager in the chest. The victim died as a result of the injury.
Also this week, the family of slain Catholic University grad student Neil Godleski told local press that Okorie was a witness in the trial prosecuting their son’s alleged killer.
The shooting victim found shot in a car near a house party in Southeast D.C. last Saturday was identified as 18-year-old Antonio Wade.
The D.C. Medical Examiner’s report on the death of Ali Ahmed Mohammed, who died after allegedly being beaten outside of the DC9 nightclub in the U Street corridor, is expected Monday. The report is expected to guide investigators in their decision whether or not to charge the men accused in the attack with murder.
Following are scheduled court appearances for murder cases. This information is current as of Friday, Dec. 17 at 2:00 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. Read more
Metro Police confirmed in an email to Homicide Watch this morning that the victim of a shooting in Anacostia early Saturday morning is 18-year-old Antonio Wade of the 5700 block of Blaine Street NE.
Wade was found inside a car in the 1700 block of 14th Street SE with a gunshot wound at about 2:30 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 11. D.C. Fire and EMS transported him to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Four other people were found shot near where Wade was found, police said. There is no word on their conditions.Read more
I’ve been asked a lot in the past few weeks about how Homicide Watch D.C. is covering the DC9 case. The answer, for now, is that we’re not.
The controversy is over the death of 27-year old Ali Ahmed Mohammed, who, by some accounts, died after being beaten outside the DC9 nightclub. I say “by some accounts” because we’re being really careful here; the medical examiner has not ruled yet on the cause of Mohammed’s death and it is not (at this time) being prosecuted as a homicide. Which is why Mohammed is not currently listed as a victim on this site.
But I came across this post today on an Ethiopian community website that made me rethink Homicide Watch’s decision to not publish anything until we know more. Read more
Homicide Watch is a community-driven reporting project covering every murder in the District of Columbia. Using original reporting, court documents, social media, and the help of victims’ and suspects’ friends, family, neighbors and others, we cover every homicide from crime to conviction. Read more…
