By Mary Beth Sheridan and Rosalind S. Helderman
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, January 29, 2007; B01
Four men were killed in the District and two others were fatally shot in Prince George's County in a burst of violence Saturday night and early yesterday, police said.
There was no apparent connection between the six slayings, which included an attack with a baseball bat in Northwest Washington, an apparent robbery in Southeast Washington and a shooting in Oxon Hill, where a gunman fired several times through a sliding-glass door into a man's living room.
Police made an arrest in one of the six cases.
The incidents occurred just weeks after D.C. police announced that homicides had hit a 21-year low in 2006. Killings also declined sharply in Prince George's last year.
The office of D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) said last night that Fenty, Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier and U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor will hold a news conference this morning at the site of one of the slayings in Southeast to discuss "their commitment to solve murder investigations in the city and strategies to prevent future homicides."
Two of the weekend slayings occurred in or near Washington's central Shaw neighborhood, where residents have been complaining about a jump in gun violence.
At 10:30 p.m. Saturday, police discovered the body of a 29-year-old man, shot several times, in the first-floor stairwell of an apartment building in the 1500 block of Seventh Street NW, said Sgt. Joe Gentile, a police spokesman. He said police had no suspects in the killing of Deon A. Peoples, who lived in the 1400 block of V Street NW.
Court records show that Peoples was convicted in the 1990s of property destruction, assault and distribution of heroin and cocaine. His mother, Helen Peoples, said he had served jail time but had "turned his life around," becoming a hospital orderly.
Residents said the neighborhood has been plagued by gang violence in recent months. "People are comparing this to the crime waves in the late '80s, early '90s," said Carmen Gilotte. "It's just constant."
Another man was killed about 2:45 a.m. yesterday several blocks away, on 11th Street NW between M and N streets. The man was swinging a baseball bat at other men when one of them grabbed it and dealt him a fatal blow, Gentile said.
A security guard working nearby detained the alleged assailant, Herman Melendez, 21, who has been charged with murder, police said. The dead man's name was not known, nor was Melendez's address, police said.
The other killings in the District were east of the Anacostia River.
About 11:40 p.m. Saturday, police found the body of Kevin Vincent Bradshaw, 41, in the 800 block of Yuma Street SE. He was shot multiple times, police said. "One possibility they're looking at is robbery," Gentile said.
Bradshaw was apparently attacked as he walked home from a bus stop after undergoing kidney dialysis at Howard University Hospital, said his brother, Ricky Bradshaw. "He was a guy who was so good, never been in trouble, never did anything unlawful," he said.
Shortly after 3 a.m. yesterday, police responding to a call about gunfire discovered a man with gunshot wounds in an apartment building in the 300 block of 54th Street NE, Gentile said. The man, whose identity was unavailable, was declared dead at Prince George's Hospital Center, he said.
In Prince George's, a 20-year-old man was killed early yesterday while sitting on the couch in his Oxon Hill apartment, police said. Police responding to a call about 2 a.m. discovered that Darius David Berry had been shot several times through the sliding-glass door of his ground-floor apartment in the 900 block of Marcy Avenue. He died at the scene.
Cpl. Diane Richardson, a spokeswoman for the Prince George's police, said investigators did not know whether Berry was targeted or was the victim of a random shooting.
In Laurel, a man was fatally shot about 3 a.m. during an argument outside J's Sports Cafe in the 12600 block of Laurel Bowie Road, officials said. Richardson said off-duty police officers working security nearby were responding to the fight when they heard a shot.
The crowd scattered, leaving Travis Lashawn Robinson, 29, of Suitland, lying on the pavement, she said. Robinson was taken to a hospital and died a few hours later.
Staff researcher Rena Kirsch contributed to this report.
