Police have identified two previously unidentified homicide victims as Keon Rishard Parker and Jose Romero Ramirez.
Parker, 28, was fatally stabbed on 2nd and E St., NW on Aug. 8. Police charged 50-year-old George Joyner with his murder. Joyner is being held without bond while his case continues.
Ramirez, 44, was killed in the 2500 block of 17th St., NW on Dec. 23. Police have charged Manuel Pupo-Leyvas with his murder. He is also being held without bond.
A man was found fatally shot outside a laundromat Tuesday afternoon.
According to a police report, police discovered 35-year-old Willie Starkey suffering from gunshot wounds to the head and neck when they were responding to the sound of gunshots in the area. Starkey’s lifeless body was found at the base of stairs leading to the laundromat at 1653 Benning Rd., NE.
Starkey was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Police say they are are looking for a suspect, identified as a black individual between 5’8 and 6’2 tall, weighing between 160 to 200 pounds. At the time of the murder, police say the suspect was wearing a black coat with a black hood and black pants.
A judge found probable cause to hold murder suspect Victor Purdie in jail Monday.
Purdie, charged with second-degree murder was arrested for the fatal assault of Richard Lewis.
According to police, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner determined Lewis’ cause of death was due to head trauma.
The altercation between Lewis and Purdie took place in front of Union Station on Oct. 2, 2016 but Lewis died from his injuries on Jan. 6, 2017.
Purdie’s attorney argued for her client to be released, pointing out that he has been charged with crimes before and successfully completed probation. She also argued that his confession in the warrant affidavit was taken “out of context,” that he has suffered mental health issues, and took issue with witnesses claiming to identify him as the suspect.
Despite the argument, a judge ruled to hold Purdie until his preliminary hearing scheduled for Feb. 2.
Victor Purdie was charged and arrested with second-degree murder for the alleged fatal assault of Richard Lewis.
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The man charged with the death of Richard Lewis last October admitted to punching and kicking the victim, according to newly released documents.
Victor Purdie, 56, who is charged with second-degree murder, identified himself in surveillance footage police used to identify the assailant in a fight outside Union Station.
At around 2:30 a.m. on Oct. 2, police responded to a call for aggravated assault. There, police found Lewis unconscious on the sidewalk in front of Union Station with severe head trauma. Lewis succumbed to his injuries and died Jan. 6. According to a coroner’s report, Lewis died from blunt head trauma.
Purdie was charged with Lewis’ murder on Jan. 23.
According to charging documents, Purdie and Lewis were allegedly seen in surveillance footage in Union Station on the morning of the incident. In the footage, Purdie can be seen walking up to Lewis on the sidewalk and pushing a picture directly in Lewis’ face. When Lewis keeps walking Purdie jerks Lewis’ head and body in the direction of the picture, which the police investigation reveals was a picture of the gravesite where Purdie’s mother is buried.
According to the document, Purdie and Lewis separate and are no longer visible in the footage. Moments later Purdie is seen running toward where the assault is alleged to have occurred.
A witness who was present at the station during the time of the attack and who also appears in the surveillance footage, said they saw two black males, one on the ground another punching the male on the ground. A car horn went off and the male stopped punching and kicked the male on the ground once more before fleeing. The witness added that the man on the ground did not fight back throughout the assault.
The witness was unable to identify the men featured in the video, though they did note that the man who inflicted the punches was a regular in the Union Station station area and they had seen him previously receiving treatment at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital.
Another witness, who came forward after police released a person of interest video featuring the two males on the sidewalk near Union Station, was able to identify one of the men as Purdie.
When police called Purdie in for questioning, Purdie identified himself as the other male in the video and confessed that he assaulted Lewis. Purdie told police he showed Lewis the picture of his mother’s grave, Lewis allegedly spit on Purdie’s face and cursed at him. Purdie reacted by punching and kicking Lewis. Purdie said Lewis, “bothers people.”
This wasn’t Purdie and Lewis’ first interaction. According to Purdie, they had problems in the past and Lewis got into a fighting stance though they never fought.
Purdie is currently being held without bail and is expected in court Feb. 2.
Police have charged a man with the alleged murder of 57- year-old Richard Lewis.
Victor Purdie, 56, is facing second degree murder charges for Lewis’s death. Lewis was beaten and repeatedly kicked in the head and succumbed to his injuries Jan. 6, making him D.C.’s first homicide victim of 2017, according to the Washington Post.
According to police, Purdie assaulted Lewis back in October of 2016. Purdie died from his injuries in January.
Lewis was a regular panhandler at Union Station who suffered from schizophrenia, Kent Lewis, Richard Lewis’ brother, told the Washington Post. Lewis was diagnosed with the mental illness after enlisting in the United States military years ago.
In the late 1980s Lewis followed his brother to D.C. and worked as a night watchman all the while taking medicine to control his schizophrenia. In 2002 his regiment fell apart after Lewis’ mother passed away.
“He was a good guy,” Kent Lewis told the Washington Post. “He was a smart guy. He unfortunately fell prey to this illness. This illness led to him being taken advantage of by the people in his world.”
Purdie is expected to be presented in court Monday afternoon.
Three suspects pleaded guilty for roles in the death of 32-year-old Cortez Lamont Clark.
As part of a plea deal Tayvon Felton, 19, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and faces 12 to 18 years in prison.
Wade Wilson, 21, faces 6 to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter while armed. Both men are currently being held without bond.
Ameesha Gray, 23, plead guilty to conspiracy to commit robbery and unlawful use of vehicle. Gray was granted high intensity supervision pending sentencing.
A case for a fourth defendant, John Allen, is proceeding separately. Allen’s case is pending an indictment from the grand jury.
Following discussion of the plea deals, a prosecutor read aloud details of Clark’s murder in October 2015.
According to police, Clark was found dead in a hallway by a vacant apartment in Congress Heights. Clark’s lifeless body was found naked, with stab wounds and trauma. According to the prosecutor’s narrative, Gray lured Clark to the apartment using a social media app where Wilson, Felton and Allen were waiting. Allen was armed with a knife. The intent was to rob Clark, but he was assaulted and stabbed to death.
Gray and Felton fled the scene in Clark’s car after taking his keys.
Felton, Wilson and Gray are set to be sentenced June 2 by Judge Lee.
Police are investigating a shooting that left one man dead and another wounded in Northeast D.C. Tuesday morning.
Ronnell Tye Reaves, of Suitland, Maryland was found dead on the scene. A second victim was taken to the hospital in critical condition, according to police.
The shooting took place in the 600 block of 14th Pl., NE. Police have not yet released any suspect information.
Police are investigating the fatal shooting of 44-year-old Anthony Irving Tuesday night.
Police responded to a report of a shooting and found Irving, unconscious, in the 4400 block of Hayes St., NE, suffering from multiple gunshot wounds.
Irving’s body was taken to the office of the Chief Medical Examiner. Police have not yet identified any suspects.
D.C. police have identified a person of interest in the Anacostia shooting that killed 68-year- old Vivian Marrow on Monday morning.
This development comes a day after Interim Police Chief Peter Newsham held a press conference urging the community members to come forward with information pertaining to the shooting.
According to police, the suspect is a black male with a slim build who appears to be left handed.
In a video released by police, Marrow can be seen in her motorized wheelchair coming down a sidewalk while two men come running behind her. One man runs through a gate and out of the camera’s view. While the other man stops, appears to pivot back towards Marrow and proceeds to cut through a row of parked cars out to the Elvans Road. Marrow’s wheelchair is seen spinning in a circle as the video comes to a close.
Two men pleaded guilty in court last week for the killing of 27-year-old Aubrey Dansbury last March.
Anthony Wade, 31, accepted a plea deal for for second-degree murder while armed and faces a sentence of 15 to 24 years in prison. Antwain Bailey, 47, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter while armed and will serve a 13 year prison term.
Both men are due to be sentenced on May 19, pending the judge’s approval of the plea deal.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Dansbury and Wade were arguing inside an apartment when the fight turned physical, and Wade called his uncle. The two men took the fight outside, when Wade’s uncle, Bailey, showed up and provided his nephew with a gun. Wade initially fired at Dansbury until his gun jammed, when his uncle helped unjam it. Wade then fatally shot Dansbury while he tried to seek cover in Bailey’s car.
The two men left in Bailey’s car, leaving Dansbury on the sidewalk.
Dansbury died about a week later from his injuries.
Interim Chief of Police Peter Newsham on Tuesday urged the community to come forward with any details about recent shooting in Anacostia.
According to police, 68-year-old Vivian Marrow was killed, and a second man was hospitalized after they were both shot Monday on the 2400 block of Elvans Road. Police said Marrow was on her way to the grocery store when she was shot.
“The circumstance is like I said– senseless. It’s tragic,” Newsham said. This is a beloved person– and I’ll say to the person who is responsible- you know what, you need to come in and let us know what you did. You may have a beef with somebody else…you’ve taken a woman out of a community who had no business losing her live at this point.”
Though Newsham said he couldn’t release the full details of the shooting he did say there were people at the scene of the crime who should have insight on the matter.
“It was broad daylight,” Newsham said. “It was a relatively mild day in that community there were a number of people out there, I was up on the scene shortly after it happened, so there are folks we really want to listen and if they have some information, to share it.”
According to Newsham, there is no established motive though it’s definite that Marrow was not the intended target. It’s unclear whether the man shot in the incident was the intended target. Police said they now believe there was a single shooter and not a shooter exchange, as previously reported.
At a press conference Tuesday when asked about a surveillance camera in the area, Newsham said they are not in a position to show the video.
Newsham acknowledged multiple times throughout the conference that community insight on the shooting would help further the investigation.
“At the end of the day we’re pretty certain there’s somebody out there that knows something,” Newsham said. “And the best thing they can do for this community and Washington D.C. as a whole is to come forward and let us know.”
Charles Sims was sentenced to 23 1/2 years in prison for the shooting death of Arthur Baldwin.
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One of the two men charged with robbing and shooting an off-duty Secret Service Officer was sentenced to 23 1/2 years in jail for murder.
Charles Sims pleaded guilty to second-degree murder while armed and armed robbery for shooting Arthur Baldwin last December as part of a plea deal. In addition to the murder sentence, Sims was sentenced to six years in prison for the armed robbery charge.
Maurice Bellamy was also arrested and charged with Baldwin’s murder. Bellamy is awaiting a trial, set to begin in April. Bellamy, 17, is also awaiting a trial on murder charges for allegedly shooting a 15-year-old on a metro platform.
According to the Washington Post, Baldwin had been on leave from the Secret Service for charges stemming from a domestic incident.
Interviews with witnesses included in the warrant affidavit for Bellamy and Sims’ arrest suggest Baldwin’s murder was the result of a robbery gone awry.
According to witness reports, three black men, later identified as Sims and Bellamy, approached Baldwin’s gray Nissan Altima on December 15 of last year. A person who accompanied Sims and Bellamy, said a fourth person told the three of them to rob Baldwin, alleging the suspended secret service agent was in the area to buy a large quantity of drugs from a known dealer in the area. In the documents, police say their investigation led them to believe Baldwin was in the area to visit a friend, not to purchase drugs. The three men were driven to the scene by the man giving the instruction. The third man, who is not named in the document, said Sims and Bellamy were armed with pistols. This account was consistent with other witness interviews, and the autopsy report which concluded Baldwin died after being shot five times by at least two different pistols, according to the documents.
According to Sims’ and Bellamy’s companion, Bellamy knocked on Baldwin’s passenger side window, and “asked him what time it was and then pointed a .38 caliber pistol at him.” Sims opened the driver side door, while the third person rifled through the trunk. According to that witness, Baldwin tried to get out of the car, and pushed Bellamy. Bellamy then shot him. Sims, standing on the passenger side, also shot the victim. Baldwin’s wallet and iPad were taken, but no money drugs or weapons were found, the witness said. When Bellamy saw the wallet had no money in it, he tossed it down a street drain, according to that witness. When police responded to 911 calls of a shooting, they found Baldwin across the street from his car without his wallet, with a silver watch on the ground nearby.
The witness told police the identities of the two suspects, which matched the descriptions provided by other witnesses at the scene. An additional witness interviewed by police said they heard Bellamy and Sims speaking in their apartment hallway about reports of a secret service officer killed. Sims, according to that witness, said he had fired at Baldwin during the course of a robbery. This witness said the fourth man, who drove the three would-be robbers to the scene then tried to sell them Baldwin’s stolen iPad.
Another person interviewed by police said they were present for a conversation had by Sims and Bellamy about the murder, in which Sims asked Bellamy why he shot Baldwin. Sims said he did it because Baldwin tried to “buck on him and take his pistol.” When Bellamy asked the same question, Sims said Bellamy was struggling with Baldwin, and once Bellamy had already shot Baldwin, he couldn’t be left there alive.
The mom charged with killing her one-month-old son was ordered released to a half-way house Friday.
Deana Debrow-Conley, charged with first-degree murder, appeared in court for her first preliminary hearing. A judge found probable cause for the case to move forward, and a grand jury will hear the allegations against Conley and decide whether to indict her.
According to police, Conley’s infant son was admitted to the hospital on July 19 of last year, after he was found unconscious and unresponsive. The baby died from his injuries on July 23, and his cause of death was ruled blunt neck trauma in December. Last month, Debrow-Conley was arrested in Philadelphia and arraigned on the murder charge in D.C. Superior Court.
She is next due to appear in court on April 7.
