Lanier, Bowser say police made arrests in 12 homicides in past month
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Version 0 of 1. D.C. police have made arrests in a dozen homicide cases over the past month and say they need more help from the public to bring closure to additional slayings, the mayor and police chief told reporters on Wednesday. The announcement comes in the final days of a year in which homicides have soared to numbers not seen since 2008. As of Wednesday, 152 people have been killed in the District, up from 96 at this time in 2014, a 58 percent increase. D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier and Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) have blamed petty arguments, long-simmering disputes between neighborhood crews and repeat violent offenders. [Bystander killed in NE Washington when he intervened in dispute] Lanier and Bowser announced the progress in the Carver-Langston neighborhood of Northeast Washington, where Arvel Lee Stewart, 26, was fatally shot on June 21 while in the 2200 block of H Street NE. He died two days later at a hospital. Authorities described Stewart as an “innocent bystander” who was killed after he intervened in a fight outside his apartment building. Police arrested a suspect in November, in large part, Lanier said, because witnesses stepped forward. “Our communities are tired of the violence, and they are working with us to bring justice to the families involved,” Lanier said, noting that 110 of the 152 homicides this year occurred in three of seven police districts — two east of the Anacostia and another that includes Trinidad and areas along Rhode Island Avenue in Northeast. Police said in an arrest affidavit that Stewart tried to break up an argument between people in rival neighborhood crews, angering one of the men, who police said returned later wearing a ski mask and armed with a 9mm pistol. Police said Stewart was shot twice in the forehead. [Police chief blames repeat violent offenders for driving killings] Lanier said the motives for cases in which arrests were made in the past month share a “similar and striking” pattern to a theme in 2015 of using deadly violence to resolve mundane disputes. The chief listed the reasons in some of the most recent cases: a bump in a nightclub; an argument in a restaurant carryout; a fistfight at a party; a dispute over panhandling proceeds; a cellphone stolen by a friend; a theft from a car; and an argument over a girl. Bowser blamed the proliferation of guns for “spreading violence across our city,” and noted that police confiscated 450 illegal weapons in the past four months. “We won’t stop investigating until we can bring justice to families” impacted by violence, she said. Stewart’s girlfriend, Sheena Sawyer, 31, looked on as Lanier and Bowser spoke. She said her boyfriend, a welder who learned his trade in Baltimore, “tried to help everybody,” and the last time he jumped into a fracas it cost him his life. An arrest helps ease the pain, Sawyer said, but she remained pessimistic that the city will get safer. “Truthfully, nothing is going to change,” Sawyer said. “ It doesn’t matter what everyone says. We don’t live in a perfect world, and there are too many guns out there. You want to stop this? Then take the gun away. Period.” |