Metropolitan Police Department detectives are investigating the fatal shooting of a teenage victim.
At approximately 11:24 a.m. on May 26, officers responded to the 2200 block of Savannah Terrace, SE, for the report of a shooting, according to a press release. There, they found 16-year-old Justin Johnson suffering from apparent gunshot wounds. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
A 16-year-old male suspect was arrested and charged with first-degree murder while armed in reference to a 2021 homicide.
At approximately 11:34 a.m. on May 13, 2021, Metropolitan Police Department officers responded to the 200 block of 37th Place, SE, due to reports of a shooting, according to a press release. There, they found four men suffering from gunshot wounds.
One of the victims, 31-year-old Anwar Christian, succumbed to his injuries on June 29, 2021.
The suspect was arrested on May 26.
Metropolitan Police Department detectives are investigating a fatal shooting in Northwest, DC.
At approximately 10:01 p.m. on May 24, officers responded to the 1200 block of North Capitol Street, NW, for the report of a shooting, according to a press release. They did not find a shooting victim but learned that a man walked into a local hospital suffering from a gunshot wound.
The victim, 20-year-old Jahmeze Williams, succumbed to his injuries.
Metropolitan Police Department detectives are investigating a fatal shooting at Thomas Circle and Massachusetts Avenue, NW.
At approximately 9:47 a.m. on May 23, officers heard a gunshot, according to a press release. A witness directed officers to the location, where they found 32-year-old Emmanuel Lys suffering from an apparent gunshot wound. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Bobby Poole was 81 years old when he became the victim of a deadly attack on a spring day in 2020. During the third day of trial proceedings for the man charged in his death, five witnesses pieced that day together.
Surveillance footage from 11:30 a.m. on March 29, 2020, shows Poole walking into a 7-Eleven on the 900 block of Division Avenue, NE. A witness who knew one of Poole’s children said he saw Poole almost every morning. The next time he saw Poole that day, “he was laying on the ground,” the witness said during the May 24 trial.
Poole was found bleeding from the head by the iron gate of a condominium complex next to the 7-Eleven. Tyrone Williams is accused of assaulting Poole with another unknown individual while trying to rob him.
Poole was taken to a local hospital and was sent home with hospice care on May 5 but died the following day, more than a month after the attack. That July, a doctor deemed Poole’s primary cause of death to be complications of a subdural hemorrhage due to blunt force trauma to the head, according to court documents.
“You were always looking for two people, is that correct,” Williams’ defense attorney, Steven Logerfo, asked the day’s first witness, a Metropolitan Police Department detective.
“Yes,” the detective responded.
Williams, 52, was arrested and charged with assault with intent to commit robbery the same day as the attack. He is now on trial for felony murder and attempted robbery. The detective worked on the case until Poole died and the MPD’s homicide branch took over. During his direct examination, a prosecutor played footage of the detective asking Williams what happened after he and the other individual turned a corner near the 7-Eleven.
“You told Williams that everything was on video before you read his Miranda Rights, is that correct,” Logerfo asked.
The detective agreed.
Williams insisted during the interview that he was alone, despite surveillance footage showing him with someone else. He said he walked to Lowest Price, a nearby gas station and convenience store on Sheriff Road in Capitol Heights, Md., after leaving the 7-Eleven. The detective was not able to access any surveillance footage from Lowest Price. The first time he visited the store, the manager was not there. By the time he visited for a second time, the footage had been overridden.
The 7-Eleven where Poole and Williams could be seen is no longer open for business as of the May 24 trial day. During direct examination, a prosecutor walked through surveillance footage from the store with the detective.
When the prosecutor paused the footage at 11:30 a.m., Poole could be seen towards the back of the store’s parking lot while Williams was right outside the door. Poole approaches the store and walks in.
Williams could be seen walking into the 7-Eleven at about 11:32 a.m. and leaving the store less than 10 minutes later.
Outdoor surveillance footage of the side of the store shows Poole walking along a sidewalk towards the condominium, where he’d eventually be found bleeding from his head. Williams and the other individual walk behind him.
After Poole was attacked, the witness who said he saw Poole almost every day went with the victim’s son to search for the assailants, although he did not see the incident himself. Upon returning to the 7-Eleven, the witness said he saw Williams and alerted the police. He said he saw Williams there almost every day and went on to pick him out of a photo lineup.
Officers stopped Williams outside the 7-Eleven. An MPD officer testified that bystanders were trying to fight him.
An MPD sergeant retrieved Williams’ bag for him before he was led into a police car. During her testimony, the sergeant affirmed that nothing that happened outside the 7-Eleven influenced the decision to arrest him.
In total, the day’s proceedings featured testimony from three law enforcement witnesses and two civilian witnesses. DC Superior Court Judge Marisa Demeo instructed jurors to return to court on May 25 to continue with the trial.
A man was sentenced for sexually assaulting a woman after breaking into her Carver-Langston neighborhood apartment.
Datwain Green was initially charged with first-degree sex abuse, assault with intent to commit first-degree sex abuse and kidnapping. On March 22, he pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree sexual abuse.
Green took an Alford Plea– a plea in which a defendant does not admit to committing a criminal act but accepts that there is enough evidence to convict them.
During the March 24 sentencing hearing, defense attorney Matthew Hertz said Green has a history of mental health issues and at the time of the assault, was experiencing a mental health crisis. His health has since improved.
“He doesn’t seem to be someone who has violence in his blood, in his bones,” Hertz said. “His behavior is going to change if he takes care of himself.”
“Mr. Green, I wish that I could be outraged or whatever else comes to mind, but, there’s something about your history that makes it understandable that there is some mitigation here in this tragedy,” DC Superior Court Judge Rainey Brandt said. “I have to admit you are a mystery to me to a certain extent.”
Green’s Static-99 score, an evaluation instrument used to assess a person’s probability of reoffending in sexual abuse cases, judged him to have a medium to high risk of reoffending. Attorneys debated the merits of this score because Green only has one prior violent offense.
“I hope the victim can forgive me for what I’ve done,” Green said, explaining that he had never done anything like this before.
Green was in a relationship with the victim’s friend, who was temporarily living with the victim at the time of the assault. She left her door unlocked so that the friend could enter her apartment while she was gone. This is believed to be how Green was able to enter the home while the victim was away.
“Not only mom did you lose on that day your piece of mind and security, but you lost your best friend,” Judge Brandt told the victim, who was in the audience and submitted a written victim impact statement but chose not to speak.
Green sexually assaulted the victim soon after she returned home. She yelled to the voice assistant on her iPhone, Siri, to call 911. This call was recorded and used as evidence in the case.
“Allegedly, your best friend has taken it upon herself to shame you on social media, that is wrong, wrong wrong, to you (the victim),” Judge Brandt said. ”I want you to hear me and hear me loudly. You did nothing wrong, you did not bring this upon yourself. You are nothing more than a victim, a brave victim because I listened to that 911 call and it made me sick to my stomach. It also made me want to stand up and applaud you.”
Officers removed Green from the victim when they arrived. Hertz said seeing the body-worn camera footage made Green become emotional.
“If only the public could see law enforcement at its best and most courageous,” Judge Brandt said.
Green was sentenced to three years in prison with one of those years suspended. He was sentenced on the lower end of the DC code sentencing guidelines since he only has one prior offense.
Judge Brandt said in her experience the longer someone stays on probation, the more likely they are to fail. She sentenced him to serve three years of probation after his prison sentence and register as a sex offender for the remainder of his lifetime.
D.C. Witness mapped all 63 homicides that occurred between January 1 and May 20, 2022.
A domestic violence defendant accused of trying to kill his now-former significant other was released from home confinement with GPS monitoring and a curfew.
The defendant was charged with assault with intent to kill while armed in February 2020. During his most recent hearing on May 19, a prosecutor told DC Superior Court Judge Robert Okun an indictment was coming soon, and charges were already before a grand jury.
A judge ordered the defendant held at DC Jail during his initial hearing on Feb. 6, 2020. Later that month, he was released to a halfway house until March 23, 2020, when he was released into home confinement under the High Intensity Supervision Program.
On Feb. 28, 2021, the court relaxed the defendant’s release conditions so he could leave his home for work. Since then, he has been working two jobs while wearing a GPS monitor.
Defense attorney Ronald Resetarits asked Judge Okun to transfer his client from HISP into standard pretrial release with a curfew. Resetarits cited the defendant’s long history of compliance with his release conditions. He said the defendant remained employed during his time on HISP without any violations.
An attorney for the victim was present during the hearing and said the victim was still fearful of the defendant’s alleged violent behavior. They asked that he remain in home confinement.
Judge Okun said the defendant had been largely compliant with the stay away, no-contact order for the past two years. He noted one violation of the home confinement order during which the defendant stayed overnight at a new girlfriend’s home.
Judge Okun released the defendant from home confinement and instituted a curfew requirement that befitted the defendant’s two job schedules, which includes night shifts.
The defendant is scheduled to return to court for a felony status conference on Oct. 24.
A domestic violence defendant accused of trying to kill his now-former significant other was released from home confinement with GPS monitoring and a curfew.
The defendant was charged with assault with intent to kill while armed in February 2020. During his most recent hearing on May 19, a prosecutor told DC Superior Court Judge Robert Okun an indictment was coming soon, and charges were already before a grand jury.
A judge ordered the defendant held at DC Jail during his initial hearing on Feb. 6, 2020. Later that month, he was released to a halfway house until March 23, 2020, when he was released into home confinement under the High Intensity Supervision Program.
On Feb. 28, 2021, the court relaxed the defendant’s release conditions so he could leave his home for work. Since then, he has been working two jobs while wearing a GPS monitor.
Defense attorney Ronald Resetarits asked Judge Okun to transfer his client from HISP into standard pretrial release with a curfew. Resetarits cited the defendant’s long history of compliance with his release conditions. He said the defendant remained employed during his time on HISP without any violations.
An attorney for the victim was present during the hearing and said the victim was still fearful of the defendant’s alleged violent behavior. They asked that he remain in home confinement.
Judge Okun said the defendant had been largely compliant with the stay away, no-contact order for the past two years. He noted one violation of the home confinement order during which the defendant stayed overnight at a new girlfriend’s home.
Judge Okun released the defendant from home confinement and instituted a curfew requirement that that worked with the defendant’s two job schedules, which includes night shifts.
The defendant is scheduled to return to court for a felony status conference on Oct. 24.
D.C. Witness analyzed the ages of all sexual abuse defendants at the time of their arrests in 2022 cases. This data shows no correlation between age and case, with the youngest defendant being 18 years old and the oldest defendant being 70 years old.
In 2020, more people were arrested in reference to Washington homicides than in the two years prior, according to D.C. Witness data.
A majority of the homicide victims in 2022 were male, data shows.
Metropolitan Police Department detectives are investigating the fatal shooting of an on-duty special police officer in Southeast, DC.
At approximately 12:23 a.m. on May 22, officers responded to the 2500 block of Elvans Road, SE, for the sounds of gunshots, according to a press release. There, they found 33-year-old Shawn Minor suffering from apparent gunshot wounds. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Metropolitan Police Department detectives are investigating a deadly shooting in Southeast, DC.
At approximately 1:28 p.m. on May 20, officers responded to the intersection of Poplar Street and Oak Drive, SE, for the report of a shooting, according to a press release. There, they found 34-year-old Cedric Williams suffering from an apparent gunshot wound. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Metropolitan Police Department detectives are investigating a shooting that injured two men and killed another.
At approximately 9:26 p.m. on May 19, officers responded to the 1500 block of V Street, SE, for the report of a shooting, according to a press release. There, they found the three victims suffering from gunshot wounds. One of them, 41-year-old David Christian Spencer, Jr., was pronounced dead at the scene.
