D.C. Area Slayings Climbed In 2005
Pr. George's Set Record; District at 20-Year Low

By Allison Klein and Del Quentin Wilber
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, January 2, 2006

The Washington region saw a rise in bloodshed in 2005, largely fueled by a spike in slayings in the D.C. suburbs, most dramatically in Prince George's County.

It was a reversal of the trend in the 1980s and 1990s, when the District gained notoriety as the country's "murder capital" during the crack wars of those decades. The District still has the largest share of area killings, with 194 slayings in 2005, close to 2004's total of 198.

Across the region, there were 466 homicides in 2005, compared with 420 in 2004 -- a rise of about 11 percent. About half of those slayings have been solved.

It was the first time the District has recorded fewer than 200 homicides in consecutive years since the mid-1980s. At the same time, the total in Prince George's climbed from 148 to 173, a grim record for the county. The Washington Post's analysis of homicide figures combines statistics from municipal and county police departments within the boundaries of a county.

Nationally, homicides in such large metropolitan counties as Prince George's and Fairfax are increasing, while cities the size of the District are seeing a slight drop, according to the latest preliminary FBI crime data.

In suburban Virginia, killings in Fairfax more than doubled in 2005, from 11 to 24. In 2004, Fairfax -- with a population of more than 1 million -- had the lowest homicide rate in the country among large jurisdictions.

Last year's Fairfax killings did not arise from any new or unusual motives: 17 were committed by people who knew their victims from domestic situations or ongoing feuds, police statistics show.

In Montgomery County, homicides remained about the same, with 19 last year and 18 in 2004.

Washington area counties that have had very small number of homicides saw increases in 2005 as well. Arlington had five and Howard logged four; each had just one in 2004. Southern Maryland was the only part of the suburban region that had a decrease.

In addition to having the highest number of killings, the District also tallied the highest homicide rate in the region: 35 per 100,000 residents. Across the country, cities similar to the District -- with populations of 500,000 to 1 million -- had an average homicide rate of 13.5 per 100,000 in 2004.

Prince George's, with a population of 850,000, had a rate of 20 per 100,000, and Fairfax had a rate of 2 per 100,000.

D.C. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey and Prince George's Police Chief Melvin C. High expressed frustration with the homicide numbers.

"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.

After two gang-related homicides in Fairfax, county police obtained funds to add four more investigators to their gang unit. They also started more programs to help steer youths away from gangs before they join.

Gang activity has also spread to such lower-crime areas Loudoun and Howard, where police say it continues to be a concern even though violent gang crime is low. In Loudoun, authorities recorded 28 gang-related crimes through June, all but 10 graffiti. In Howard, police documented 57 incidents related to MS-13 and identified 55 MS-13 members who have been involved in criminal activity.

In Prince George's, where there were eight gang-related homicides last year, violence not related to gangs was most pronounced. Overall, violent crime there increased about 13 percent, with robberies, assaults and carjackings up from 2004.

Property crime in Prince George's decreased 3 percent, pushing total crime down by almost one percent.

Most of the homicides were near the dangerous District-Prince George's border, across which criminals have routinely slipped back and forth. Several months ago, city and county police agreed to work together to target border crime.

Prince George's police found little to connect the killings in their county other than the general categories of guns and drugs. The majority of the victims -- 124 -- were black. There was an increase in the number of Hispanics killed, from 19 in 2004 to 26 last year.

The majority of the killings happen after two men argue and one or both pull out guns, police said. In an effort to cut crime, High has hired more officers for the understaffed department, targeted "hot spot" crime areas and upgraded technology.

Ultimately, High said, crime is as much a social problem as a police issue. "As density grows, that creates issues," High said. "It comes down to rage, tremendous human rage."

Outside experts and former police officials have said they believe that crime-prone populations in the District moved to the county in the last decade.

The migration began in the early 1990s as people tried to escape the city's high rate of violence. Others moved because the city knocked down several public housing buildings over the years, and the problems followed them, the experts and former police officials have said.

"When you have gentrification, there is another word that goes along with that: displacement," said Andrew Karmen, a criminologist and sociology professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. "People bring their problems with them where they settle."

That also happened in New York in the 1990s, when the city was wrestling with huge crime waves. Officials in Upstate New York, including those in Albany, Rochester and Buffalo, complained of having to deal with displaced criminals, Karmen said.

Ramsey credits better computerized tracking and analysis of crime and more targeted enforcement for helping drive down the District's number of killings in recent years. In 1997, a year before Ramsey became chief, the city recorded 301 killings. Overall city crime dropped about 7 percent last year.

"When you look at what is going on in the region and other cities, for us not to go up is good," Ramsey said. "I see progress."

Despite the overall drop, there have recently been increases in two of the city's most serious crime categories: robberies and killings. The spikes prodded police officials early last month to declare a crime emergency, which suspended portions of the police union contract. Commanders now have greater flexibility in setting officers' schedules to respond to crime spikes. Ramsey said he expects to lift the emergency in coming days because the spate of deadly violence and robberies appears to have ebbed.

Varied Crime Challenges

The only area in the suburban region where homicides dropped was in mostly rural Southern Maryland. In fast-growing Charles County, for example, the number of killings fell from seven to five, the majority related to a domestic issue. At the same time, auto thefts increased by 44 percent, making that and robberies the biggest crime challenge.

In Anne Arundel, where homicides remained about steady from 2004 to 2005, police have been confronting the arrival of the drug methamphetamine. In Annapolis, police say Hispanic immigrants have increasingly been the targets of robberies.

In Frederick, police say the biggest problem is traffic violations.

In Alexandria, police noted an increase this year in robberies, most of which were commercial. The city had its share of crime last year, notably a January knife attack on several elderly patients, allegedly by an employee of the retirement home where they lived; the September stabbing of three police officers in Old Town, allegedly by a T.C. Williams High School honor student; and the shooting of a Washington Wizard player in a carjacking attempt.

Loudoun residents have been facing a theft problem. They "have a tendency to keep their doors open and not lock their cars and leave their purses in their cars or their iPods in their cars," sheriff's spokesman Kraig Troxell said.

And Northern Virginia was home to one of the region's most-followed crimes: the cell phone bandit's bank robberies. On Nov. 4, Candice Martinez, 19, robbed an Ashburn Wachovia bank, the last of four area banks she hit. Video footage released by Loudoun authorities showed Martinez chatting on her cell phone during the heist, leading to her nickname. Martinez and her accomplice, Dave C. Williams, pleaded guilty.

In the Prince William area, including Manassas and Manassas Park, the number of homicides rose from 9 in 2004 to 13 in 2005. Prince William County police would not comment on the crime.

Staff writers Karin Brulliard, Ruben Castaneda, Tom Jackman, Fredrick Kunkle, Ernesto Londoño, Amit R. Paley, Joshua Partlow, Eric Rich, Ian Shapira and Jamie Stockwell contributed to this report.