D.C. Area Slayings Climbed In 2005

"We are not where we want to be in terms of violent crime," High said. "But we are very focused on it. "

Ramsey said he was disappointed that the city's homicide rate didn't drop more substantially last year, but said he felt police were successful at keeping them below 200. "I was hoping we would have a bigger dent in homicides," Ramsey said. "At the same time, last year represented a 20-year low in murders."

The Washington area had its share of shocking crimes, both deadly and nonfatal, in 2005.

In the District, Donte Manning, 9, was fatally shot as he played outside his Northwest Washington apartment building in March. That same month, D.C. Cabinet member Wanda R. Alston, 45, was stabbed to death inside her home by a neighbor. A 46-year-old woman, Dorine Fostion, was slain by a stray bullet in August as she watched television in her Southeast Washington apartment. Also that month, a mother was charged with beating, suffocating and drowning her 6-year-old son in their Southeast apartment.

In August in Prince George's, three men were sleeping outdoors in Langley Park when someone slashed their throats, killing two of them. Two months later, Yvette Cade, 31, was doused with gasoline and set on fire, allegedly by her husband, at a crowded Clinton T-Mobile store. And in June, Prince George's Sgt. Steven Gaughan, 41, was fatally shot by a man after a routine traffic stop near Laurel.

In Fairfax, Nathan Cheatham, 27, went on a Christmas morning rampage and killed his mother and three other people before shooting himself at a sprawling Great Falls home.

Of Montgomery's 19 slayings, the youngest victim was 15-year-old Rockville High School freshman Kanisha "Missy" Neal, who was stabbed by a girl her age after a football game in September.

Another notable killing happened in October, when Shohreh Seyed-Makki, 54, was found fatally beaten in her Potomac home. Police arrested her 23-year-old son but later dropped the charges. The case is unsolved.

In May, a knife-wielding woman stabbed a shopper at a Nordstrom in a mall and then attacked a second woman on an escalator. Neither attack was fatal.

Gangs' Reach Grows

As happened elsewhere in the country, gangs, especially Mara Salvatrucha, expanded their presence in the Washington area and were linked to several high-profile crimes, including two attacks in August in Montgomery, which left six teens wounded and led to a dozen arrests.

Later that month, 19 alleged MS-13 members were indicted on federal racketeering charges in six killings and four attempted killings in suburban Maryland in 2003. One of the incidents was in Montgomery, the rest in Prince George's.