By Jamie Stockwell
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 27, 2006

A woman shot to death while she waited at a stoplight in Alexandria late Wednesday probably was targeted by her killer, though a motive for her slaying remained unknown, police said yesterday.

A number of leads were being pursued, including the theory that Bethlehem Ayele, 34, may have been slain in retaliation for her testimony against a major murder and drug enterprise known as Murder Inc., which was prosecuted nearly three years ago in the District, police said.

"Our detectives are aware of that information, and they are looking at all the angles," said Lt. James Bartlett, an Alexandria police spokesman. "We don't know what she was doing when she was killed, but we feel [she] was specifically killed, and for that reason we don't feel that her killer presents a threat to the community at large."

Ayele, whose jobs included selling homes for Weichert Realtors and answering phones at Alexandria Yellow Cab, was pronounced dead at Inova Alexandria Hospital not long after the 10:15 p.m. shooting, the city's fifth homicide this year. Officers arrived at the busy intersection of Mount Vernon and Commonwealth avenues in the Del Ray section of Alexandria after receiving reports that gunshots had been fired.

Bartlett said Ayele, of Alexandria, was stopped at the light when someone walked up to her car after walking past several others idling at the intersection. The assailant fired the shots into the driver's side of Ayele's car, Bartlett said, and then ran away.

The car Ayele was driving rolled across the intersection before striking a utility pole. No one else was in the car when officers arrived, Bartlett said.

Detectives canvassed the area and worked to find information on who killed Ayele, who, court records revealed, was involved in various drug-related cases. In the District, Ayele testified for the government in one of the city's longest-running and highest-security criminal trials, which led to the convictions of six men accused of being lieutenants in Murder Inc., a gang whose members allegedly killed at least 31 people from 1988 to 1999.

Channing Phillips, spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office, yesterday called Ayele's death "a huge tragedy" but declined to comment further.

According to court documents, Ayele was accused in November 2000 of conspiring to distribute cocaine and carrying a firearm. She was found guilty four years later, not long after her testimony led to the convictions of members of Murder Inc., and was sentenced to probation.

While out on bond on the drug and firearm charges, Ayele was arrested in July 2003 in Alexandria after she allegedly threw hot coffee at her mother. She was acquitted of the domestic assault and battery charge a few weeks later.

Residents who live nearby said the intersection, near a heavily trafficked strip of shops and restaurants on Mount Vernon Avenue, is frequently the site of crashes because of its odd design. Three streets come together in that spot. And so when the shots were fired late Wednesday, several residents said they thought nothing of it.

"I heard a bang, and it sounded like another accident. I had no idea someone had been killed," said Joanne Winters, 56. "It's mostly quiet around here. This is something unusual."

Three years ago and about a half-mile away, the wife of former Alexandria sheriff James H. Dunning was found slain inside the couple's home. Yesterday, residents recalled the unsolved killing of Nancy Dunning and said that until Wednesday's slaying, it was the worst incident to occur in the immediate area.

Bartlett encourages anyone who was in the area of the shooting to call detectives at 703-838-4711. "We know there were other people in cars, and maybe they weren't aware of what was going on," he said.

Staff researcher Meg Smith contributed to this report.