B4 eZ re the washington post.saturday, november 16 , 2019
lence.
“Historically, the department
has not always prioritized these
particular cases,” said Thomas T.
Cullen, the U.S. attorney for the
Western District of Virginia.
Cullen highlighted one recent
case in which he said a man who
lived in the District area persuad-
ed four people to buy 43 firearms
from a single gun shop in rural
Virginia. one weapon was found
in the home of a murder s uspect i n
maryland, another was recovered
during a domestic violence case i n
the D istrict, and a third was in the
hands of a man legally barred
from possessing a gun.
“Goodness knows where the
rest of those firearms are,” Cullen
said. “Logic tells you they are p rob-
ably in this region a s we speak.”
Te rwilliger sent a warning to
potential illegal gun owners that
the bar is now lower for attracting
the attention of federal law en-
forcement.
“If you lie and buy a firearm for
someone else, you will be prose-
cuted with a felony,” Terwilliger
said. “If you lie and a ttempt t o buy
a firearm, known as ‘lying and
trying,’ you will be prosecuted
with a felony.”
[email protected]region — in effect e xpands on that
idea by getting federal prosecu-
tors to better coordinate cases so
an investigation of a person ille-
gally possessing a gun in the Dis-
trict now includes a close look at
where that person obtained the
firearm.
That closer scrutiny on even
routine cases now includes a
greater emphasis on prosecuting
people for lying on federal forms
about whether they were prohibit-
ed from owning a firearm. Dis-
qualifiers include some drug con-
victions and past domestic vio-his special-needs client in a house
robbery, and a groundskeeper
shot as he ate lunch outside the
complex w here he worked.
D .C. police have saturated
neighborhoods hit hard by shoot-
ings, a nd earlier this year prosecu-
tors in the District announced
they would take m ore g un cases to
federal court, focusing on felons
charged w ith p ossessing firearms.
Local authorities said they be-
lieved the federal courts might be
more consistent i n sentencing.
Project Guardian-DmV — as
the new program is called in theare carved into the m emorial.
The District is experiencing its
second consecutive year of rising
homicides, w ith 148 committed s o
far in 2019 as of friday afternoon,
a 4 percent i ncrease o ver t his time
last year. The 160 homicides in all
of 2018 were a nearly 40 percent
increase from t he previous year.
Violence has been a top concern
of District officials, and one made
more urgent over the fall. In one
week in october, the victims in-
cluded two teens, a caregiver andguns from B1BY CHRISTINE ZHANG,
MCKENNA OXENDEN
AND LILLIAN REEDBA LTIMORE — Several South-
west Baltimore neighbors began
their Thursday morning with a
visit to the South monroe Gro-
cery store and more bad news.
The lingering scent of bleach
and a police presence outside the
corner store signaled to patrons
that another homicide had oc-
curred. The officers soon placed a
call to the fire department to
wash the remaining flecks of
blood from the pavement.
Hours earlier, a man and a
woman were fatally shot on the
sidewalk there — the 299th and
300th individuals killed in Balti-
more in 2019.
Their deaths marked the city’s
fifth consecutive year with at
least 300 homicides. The stagger-
ing total has become an unofficial
milestone in Baltimore’s annual
struggle to quell the deadly vio-
lence.
Police confirmed the double
shooting Thursday near the gro-
cery store in West Baltimore’s
Carrollton ridge neighborhood.
Earlier, 21-year-old Donnell
Brockington, of Aberdeen, died
at a hospital after he was found
Wednesday night with gunshot
wounds in East Baltimore’s
mcElderry Park.
“Every murder is a tragedy. We
don’t want any. We strive to clear
them all,” Baltimore Police Com-
missioner michael Harrison said
Thursday on WYPr’s midday
show with To m Hall.
Harrison, who previously
served as New orleans’s chief,
said it took years for that city to
reverse its crime trends. He said
he attributed the reversals there
partially to apprehending and
holding criminals accountable.By solving more homicides and
shootings, he said, they were able
to prevent more.
He said a new deployment
strategy in Baltimore placed offi-
cers in the area of a shooting
Wednesday night, allowing them
to catch a fleeing vehicle.
“our officers were right where
they are supposed to be,” he said.
However, Harrison said, to ad-
dress the “culture of violence” i n
Baltimore, there must be pro-
grams offering young men a path
away from a life of crime.
“If you’re not doing that, we
are only responding to it,” he said.
men and women passing
through South monroe Grocery
on Thursday said they were ex-
hausted — of their neighborhood,
the deaths and the endless grief.
Akagg Beard referred to the
woman killed earlier in the
morning as a lifelong friend and a
good person. Beard was stabbed
herself three months ago during
a robbery.
To Joseph Calloway, it seemed
that people in Baltimore “get
killed for nothing.”
Less than a year ago, Callo-
way’s brother Edward Calloway
also was shot and killed near the
mini-market. An aging memorial
to Edward still clings to a sign-
post outside the front door.
“I wish I was rich, I wish I
wasn’t in the neighborhood, but I
wish a lot of things,” Calloway
said. “But it’s t he game of life, and
life is dirty.”This year’s victims
most of those killed were
young and male, but nearly 1 in 1 0
were women. four young chil-
dren are counted among this
year’s victims.
The kids include one infant,
2-month-old Elsie Cottman, who
died in may, a llegedly at t he handof her father. Also in may, Caleb
Carter, 7, died in Baltimore Coun-
ty of injuries stemming from a
2012 case, when his parents were
arrested and charged with child
abuse in the city, according to the
medical examiner. City detectives
reclassified the toddler’s death as
a homicide in october.
A 2-year-old boy, Trevor Gra-
ham, died of blunt force trauma
in January; a family friend has
been charged and awaits trial.
malachi Lawson, 4, was found
dead in a Baltimore dumpster
with untreated burns in early
August. His mother and her wife
were arrested and charged. The
little boy is remembered for hav-
ing an infectious smile and an
affinity for “Paw Patrol.”
The most common ages for a
homicide victim are 25 and 27;
through Nov. 9, about 43 percent
of victims were in their 20s.
These i nclude 24-year-old m arkel
Jackson, who was shot to death in
July, and 27-year-old Donye
Lowther, who was killed in a
September carjacking.
Two hundred seventy-one vic-
tims were male; 29 were female.
Bailey reeves, a 17-year-old
transgender woman from rock-
ville, died after being shot in the
torso in early September. reeves
was one of at least three trans-
gender women killed in mary-
land in 2019. Jennyfer Velazquez,
19, was killed at the end of may
while walking to get ice cream.
Police have not released the
race of every homicide victim; in
past years, when records were
more complete, the vast majority
— more than 90 percent — of
victims were black.
The Broadway East neighbor-
hood has experienced the biggest
year-over-year increase in homi-
cides, tripling to 12 so far this
year from four at this time lastyear, followed by Central Park
Heights, w ith 11 this year up from
five a year ago.
The homicide count in Brook-
lyn has dropped to five from 11
last year; Edmondson Village,
which saw six homicides by this
time last year, has recorded none
so far in 2019. About a third of
homicides happened in the West-
ern and Eastern police districts.
Some victims, such as young
Carter, died as a result of inci-
dents occurring in years past.
michele Blanding, who died in
may at t he age of 59, was shot and
wounded nearly a quarter-centu-
ry ago. Alfredo Brathwaite, who
was shot and paralyzed in 2000,
succumbed to his injuries in
march at the age of 40. Quinton
rodgers, 31, also died in march,
after being shot multiple times in- All three deaths were ruled
homicides.
A grim milestone
The 300 figure for homicides is
a symbolic benchmark set during
the 1990s, when the city, which
had about 100,000 more resi-
dents, averaged upward of 320
murders each year.
Last year, there were 309 ho-
micides in Baltimore, or 51 per
100,000 people who live in the
city — the highest rate of any
American city with more than
500,000 people, according to fBI
data. The city’s homicide rate
reached a record high in 2017.
The official police tally does
not include the d eaths of Grego-
ry Sinclair, 31, whose killing in
January the State’s Attorney’s
office ruled as self-defense, or
that of a 49-year-old man, who
was killed in october from w hat
police now say was a self-inflict-
ed gunshot wound to the head
while arguing with his brother.
— Baltimore SunMarylandBaltimore hits 300 homicides for 5th year in a row
Jerry Jackson/Baltimore sun
A Baltimore firefighter washes blood off the corner of Monroe and McHenry streets, where two people were killed Thursday morning. The
man and woman fatally shot there were the 299th and 30 0th individuals killed in Baltimore this year.Federal initiative to target gun crime regionwide
peter hermann/the Washington postJessie K. Liu, the u.s. attorney
for the District, speaks at Friday’s
news conference about project
guardian-DMV, a federal
initiative to better coordinate
efforts to combat gun crime.George’s County State’s Attor-
ney’s office, said mcClain was
wanted on an open warrant for
driving without a driver’s license
at the time of the incident.
Church also said in court that
mcClain has several criminal
convictions, including cases that
involve firearms.
“He certainly does pose a dan-
ger to the community,” Church
said in arguing mcClain should
not be released on bond.
mcClain is scheduled to ap-
pear in court again on Dec. 17.
mooney said mcClain has
“very viable” defenses, but did
not offer details.
“He looks f orward to h is day in
court,” mooney said.
[email protected]confronted him and the two got
into a verbal altercation that
spilled into the parking lot, po-
lice said.
“While exiting the store, the
male Suspect can be seen bran-
dishing a sharp object in his
right hand,” c harging documents
state. “once outside, the male
Suspect, immediately swings the
sharp object at the Decedent,
stabbing him one time in the
torso.”
mcClain fled in a car, charging
documents state.
A Prince George’s County po-
lice officer reviewing video of the
altercation identified mcClain.
The officer had at least three
interactions with mcClain “dur-
ing the course of fulfilling his
duties as a police officer over the
past year,” charging documents
said.
mcClain was captured
Wednesday after investigators
tracked him to a home in Capitol
Heights, md., police said.
mcClain and Davis did not
know each other before the inci-
dent, said County Police Chief
Hank Stawinski, who decried the
killing as “pointless” and “shock-
ing.”
Davis’s family and friends said
they did not b elieve that the fight
was over a chicken sandwich and
called the killing “senseless.”
Jonathon Church, head of the
homicide unit for the Prince
popeyes from B1
No bond for man charged
i n restaurant stabbing
prince george’s county police
Ricoh McClain, 3 0, of District
Heights, Md.BY DANA HEDGPETH
AND PETER HERMANNThe death of a homeless man
whose body was found this week
at freedom Plaza in downtown
Washington may be linked to the
recent cold snap and tempera-
tures that have dropped below
freezing on some nights, accord-
ing to authorities.
D.C. police said the man was 77
years old. His body was found
early Wednesday in the 1300
block of Pennsylvania Avenue
NW, across the street from the
John A. Wilson Building, the seat
of District government.
The medical examiner has yet
to determine a cause of death, but
Police Chief Peter Newsham said
the man had possible “health
issues” and his death “potentially
could be because of the climate.”
Hours after that man’s body
was found, police on Wednesday
afternoon found another home-
less man unconscious in front of a
mcDonald’s restaurant at 13th
and f streets Northwest, two
blocks from freedom Plaza. A
police report says firefighters at-
tempted CPr but could not revive
him, and the 52-year-old was pro-
nounced dead at the scene.
Newsham said the investiga-
tion is still underway, but police
believe complications other than
the weather caused his death.
Neither man’s identity was re-
leased by police, pending notifi-
cation of their families.
mayor muriel E. Bowser (D)
made reducing homelessness a
central part of her first campaign
for office, and earlier this year
officials said the number of
homeless people counted on
streets and in shelters had
dropped for the third straight
year. Getting the homeless popu-
lation inside during frigid weath-
er is an ongoing effort of city
agencies.
In the District, there were 34
deaths due to hypothermia from
fiscal year 2011 to fiscal year 2015,
according to city statistics in a
“Winter Plan” for fiscal 2020,
which was done by the Interagen-
cy Council on Homelessness.
In subsequent years, the agen-
cy tracked only the deaths of
homeless people caused by hypo-
thermia. Eight died from fiscal
2016 through 2019, the report
says.
When the city goes under a
“hypothermia alert” or “cold
emergency,” shelters stay open
during the day so clients have a
“warm and safe place,” according
to the plan. City officials said
they’ve taken steps in the past few
years to improve hypothermia
response by expanding city ser-
vices for reaching out to clients
and providing more transporta-
tion to shelters.
Still, getting some in the home-
less population to come inside
during bitter cold snaps can be
tough, experts said. michael fer-
rell, executive director of the Co-
alition for the Homeless, on fri-
day called the deaths tragic.
“for these two gentlemen, we
don’t know exactly what the cir-
cumstances were, but it’s very
unfortunate,” ferrell said. “A ny
loss of life is very unfortunate,
and it runs contrary to what we’re
trying to do every year, which is
trying to save lives.”
Sometimes, ferrell said, those
who are homeless and choose to
stay on the streets rather than go
to a shelter don’t realize the risks
of the weather and potential hy-
pothermia.
“Some individuals think they
can survive despite the cold
weather by having blankets and
warm coats and hats to keep them
warm,” ferrell said. “I think that
for some individuals, that’s their
belief — that they can manage the
cold.”
But, he said, the “reality is that
anyone who remains on the
streets when you have frigid
weather is at risk.”
“That’s why we do encourage
individuals to come into shelters,
and if you see someone who needs
help, call the shelter hotline num-
ber.”
Anyone who is in need of help
from the cold can call the city’s
shelter hotline at 202-399-7093.
[email protected]
[email protected]the district
Homeless man’s death
may be linked to cold
Authorities worry more
fatalities could follow as
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