POST Local

The death of a man who died months after being shot last July has been ruled a homicide, the D.C. police said.

They said Pernell Lonnie Dawkins, 43, of Southeast Washington was shot in the 300 block of Ridge Road SE on July 17. The shooting left him paralyzed and he was taken to a rehabilitation cetner in Maryland, where he died March 14.

Police said his death was ruled a homicide Monday after an autopsy was conducted by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore.

This story has been updated to correct boy’s age.

A 3-year-old boy was killed Tuesday in Charles County when he climbed out of his mother’s car and was hit by an oncoming vehicle, authorities said.

The incident occurred about 2 p.m. in a quiet residential neighborhood in the Waldorf area, the sheriff’s office said.

Based on a preliminary investigation, the boy was in the back seat of his mother’s car in the 10500 block of Sugarberry Street when she apparently spotted the mail carrier and pulled to the curb to hand him some mail, said Diane Richardson, the spokeswoman for the sheriff’s office.

The boy, without his mother’s knowledge, unbuckled himself and got out of the car, Richardson said.

He walked behind the car and into the path of a sport-utility vehicle, Richardson said. It happened “in the blink of an eye,” she said.

The names of those involved were not immediately released. Richardson said the woman lives in the general area of the incident, as does the driver of the SUV.

Residents of the street where the incident occurred said in interviews Tuesday night that they did not know any of those involved.

The area is about two miles northwest of the downtown section of Waldorf and is known as Autumn Hills, the residents said.

The slightly curving street where the incident occurred appeared barely wide enough for two cars to pass in opposite directions.

Rivelino Villegas-Posada. ((Courtesy of Fairfax County police)) Two men have been arrested for allegedly bludgeoning and raping a 50-year-old woman in the Merrifield area last week, Fairfax County police said.

Rivelino Villegas-Posada, 34, of no fixed address, and Jubencio Castro, 24, of no fixed address, were charged with rape and aggravated malicious wounding, police said.

Roger Clemens’ former strength coach saved medical waste from injections he said he gave the pitching legend in case “something did go wrong,” he testified Tuesday.

Brian McNamee said his relationship with the baseball star led to marital problems, and that his wife pressed him to do something to protect himself because he had a “history of taking hits for people and always getting in trouble.”

In the midst of what he called a “Battle Royale” with his wife, he said, she told him “you are going to go down,” explaining why he kept a needle, gauze and cotton balls from a 2001 steroid injection that he would later turn over to law enforcement officials.

D.C. police have released surveillance video of a person of interest in the death of a baby boy in Southeast Washington.

Kuron Hunt was delivered after his pregnant mother was stabbed in the stomach at her home in the 4200 block of 9th Street SE on March 22. While his mother survived, the baby died due to injuries sustained in the attack.

The surveillance video shows a person walking outside the victim’s apartment building about 2:30 a.m. the morning of the attack.