Year in Review: Homicides Continue to Rise in DC

By Andrea Keckley [former] - January 7, 2021
Court | Featured | Homicides | Suspects | Victims | Videos |

Washington, DC had 205 homicides in 2020. That’s about a 12 percent increase from the previous year, which saw 180. 

The homicide count for 2020 is also higher than it was in 2018, 2017 or 2016.

One hundred and seventy-six of the victims were male, 29 were female.

Five of 2020’s homicides were domestic. Four of the victims in these homicides were female. Data shows that even though women were victims in 14 percent of the total homicides that took place in 2020, their deaths accounted for 80 percent of the total domestic homicides in the city.

The sole male domestic homicide victim was Cornell Mason, who was stabbed to death on the night of April 10 on the 4000 block of Clay Place, NE. Phillip Humphrey is charged with second-degree murder.

On July 9, a DC Superior Court judge ruled that Humphrey’s case had enough evidence to go to trial, but only on a lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter while armed. Ronald Resetarits, the defendants attorney, says his client acted in self-defense. 

Humphrey was released into the High Intensity Supervision Program (HISP) in July. His next court hearing is scheduled for April 2.

Mason was 33 years-old. The average age of 2020’s homicide victims was 32. The average age was 30 in 2019.

The two oldest victims, Bobby Poole and Donald Malloy, were 81 years-old when they were killed. 

According to a press release, Poole was the victim of an assault with the intent to commit robbery on March 29, 2020 on the 900 block of Eastern Avenue, NE. He succumbed to his injuries on May 6, 2020 and an autopsy determined the cause of death to be complications of a hematoma to the brain. Charges against 50-year-old Tyrone Williams were upgraded to first-degree murder – felony murder the following September.

Williams is being held at the DC Jail. His next hearing is scheduled for Jan. 15.

Malloy was killed in an alleged hit and run offense between the intersection of Bryant Street and North Capitol Street, NE on May 31, 2020. Kyle Alexander Wooden, 32, was arrested for second-degree murder on June 1, 2020.

Woodend was released under the HISP program in June. His next court hearing is scheduled for March 29.

Malloy was one of five homicide victims killed by cars in 2020. A majority – about 86 percent – of the victims were killed by guns. That number was about 78 percent in 2019.

Similar to 2019, Ward 8 had the most homicides. In 2020, the ward had 60 homicides, about 29 percent of the District’s total. In 2019, there were 71 homicides, about 35 percent of the District’s total. 

Article and video by Andrea Keckley