'Flash Point' Killings: Murder Most Casual

In 2000, Prince George's had 71 homicides, with the most common motive being drugs, accounting for 23 killings. Only five slayings that year were caused by arguments, police data show.

Dozens, perhaps more than a hundred, of such anger-fueled killings have occurred in the county in the past four years, according to police, prosecutors and Circuit Court records. Many of the victims were acquaintances of their killers. A few were intimates. Some were strangers.

Most of the attackers were teenagers or young men with handguns. The majority of the killers were not drunk or high when they attacked -- they were angry. Many became furious when they perceived that they'd been slighted in front of friends or a girlfriend.

The Need for Respect

Although they have no specific studies to point to, police, prosecutors, people who work with ex-offenders, victims rights advocates and the ex-offenders themselves said the burgeoning violence is because of a toxic mix of causes: the easy availability of handguns; a subculture, including some rap songs and videos, that celebrates violence; and a pathological need on the part of some young men for respect.

DeJuan Conaway, 32, grew up in West Baltimore and says he had a lifestyle that included violence and crime as a young man. Conaway said he was accused of shooting a man during an argument at a pickup basketball game he was watching. In March 2001, he was acquitted of attempted first-degree murder.

Conaway said he didn't like the way the victim was eyeballing him and said words to the effect of "What are you looking at?" That led to more words and the shooting, he said.

He was acquitted after the victim did not show up for court, Conaway said.

Such hair-trigger violence, Conaway said, "makes sense to you at the time when you do it. When your blood is boiling, you're not thinking. You react off impulse.

"The only thing you have when you're involved in that lifestyle is respect," Conaway said. "If you don't have respect, people will try to rob you. Your friends are watching you. They'll say, 'You let that guy disrespect you?' Then your friends might disrespect you if they see you let someone get away with [an oral slight]. Or if you're with a female, she may not want anything to do with you."

Spending a year in jail before being acquitted of attempted murder convinced him that he needed to leave the thug life behind, Conaway said.

These days, he works as a surveyor for an engineering firm by day and as a cook for a seafood restaurant by night. "I have changed my life around," Conaway said, adding that he hopes to mentor younger ex-offenders.

A Nationwide Problem

The problem of flash-point crime exists nationwide. In Milwaukee, for example, homicides jumped from 88 in 2004 to 122 in 2005, said Brian O'Keefe, deputy chief of the city's police department.