The District has recorded 100 homicides at its earliest date in two decades, police data shows, as the mayor searches for the next police chief and congressional Republicans hound the city over its inability to tamp down the violence.
Crime data from the Metropolitan Police Department shows that the city recorded 102 homicides through Tuesday — a 19% increase from the 86 slayings in the District through the same period last year.
The D.C. Police Union said the city had not reached the 100-homicide threshold this quickly since 2003, which ended with 248 killings.
“It is indeed a grim milestone,” D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, said at a press conference Wednesday. “Any day it would be grim to talk about 100 people, in a city our size, being lost to gun violence or some other type of violence in our neighborhood.”
She said the city is working to close gaps in the law and has programs and services in place to engage young offenders, and “the system of consequences is also working.”
Interim Police Chief Ashan Benedict said during the press conference that the department is using hot spot policing to get a grip on crime. He said foot patrols are interacting with the public in four or five locations within each of the city’s seven police districts.
Chief Benedict lamented that the District’s homicide numbers are overshadowing positive developments in crime reduction.
He said no violent crimes were reported from late afternoon to late evening Tuesday in the District except for a deadly shooting at a Shell gas station on South Capitol Street. The few robberies reported east of the Anacostia during the weekend were minimized by a homicide in Southeast, he said.
“We are having success, but whenever someone loses their life, we can never take that lightly and celebrate the successes because we know we have work to do,” the chief said.
D.C. Council member Brooke Pinto, Ward 2 Democrat and chair of the Judiciary and Public Safety Committee, did not respond to a request for comment on the homicide numbers.
The District has reported that robberies are up 25%, carjackings have risen 57%, sexual assaults have increased 34% and assaults with dangerous weapons have nudged up 2%.
Police data shows that violent crime is up 16% this year and overall crime has increased 27%.
“This increase in crime is due to the D.C. Council’s implementation of misguided ‘police reform’ legislation,” Gregg Pemberton, the D.C. Police Union chairman, said in a statement. “The Council’s actions have had a chilling effect on professional and responsible policing and caused over 1,200 police officers to leave the agency.”
Police have reported several homicides this month, most from gunfire.
A man was killed and a woman was injured in a shooting Tuesday night in the 1200 block of 49th Street Northeast, police said.
Authorities responded to the scene of a shooting Monday night in the 2500 block of 14th Street Northeast. Responding officers found a man suffering from gunshot wounds and took him to a hospital for treatment, but he succumbed to his injuries.
Another man was fatally shot overnight Saturday in the 300 block of Anacostia Road Southeast. On Friday night, a man was shot dead inside a home in the 2900 block of Nelson Place Southeast, police said.
A man died June 1 from burn injuries after his car was set on fire, according to police. A woman was arrested on charges of assault with intent to kill. Police said they are in discussions with the U.S. attorney’s office to pursue more severe charges against the woman.
The homicide count is rising as the District seeks a permanent replacement for former Police Chief Robert Contee III. Interim Chief Benedict has said he has no interest in taking the top job.
A police source told The Washington Times that Assistant Chief Pamela Smith, a former chief of U.S. Park Police who currently runs the department’s homeland security bureau, is the internal front-runner to succeed Chief Contee.
Candidates from Chicago and Baltimore have also interviewed for the job as part of Ms. Bowser’s nationwide search.
Republicans this year have used their constitutional authority to overrule several D.C. laws that they decried as too radical. That was most notable when Republican members spearheaded a bipartisan rebuke of the District’s massive rewrite to its criminal code this spring. President Biden did not veto the measure.
Republicans also have held two House Oversight and Accountability Committee hearings dedicated to crime in the District. They assailed local and federal leaders for their public safety failures.
Matthew Graves, U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, was berated at a hearing last month for his office’s decision not to pursue 67% of the cases that D.C. police brought to prosecutors.
The U.S. attorney’s office prosecutes most serious crimes in the nation’s capital. Much like the D.C. Superior Court, the U.S. attorney position is filled by federal appointment.
D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson was ridiculed in March for saying “there is no crime crisis in Washington” during an appearance before Congress.
Days before that hearing, an aide to Sen. Rand Paul, Kentucky Republican, was the victim of an apparently random stabbing by a man recently released from jail. In the days afterward, a Virginia woman visiting the District for a concert was fatally stabbed by a stranger in her New York Avenue hotel room.
Rep. Angie Craig, Minnesota Democrat, was assaulted in February by a man in her apartment building who had 12 prior convictions, including for assaulting a police officer.
Kendrid Hamlin, 26, faces up to 10 years in prison for the offense after pleading guilty last week.
• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.
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