D.C. Slayings Bring '08 Toll to 72

Police discovered the final homicide victim about 6 a.m. in the 2400 block of Fourth Street NE. Lawrence Simmons, 66, was asleep in his black Chrysler when someone beat him on the head and cut his throat, according to police and family members. Simmons, who lived nearby in the 300 block of Channing Street NE, was a friendly man who fixed cars and did carpentry in the neighborhood, relatives said.

"He was a jack-of-all-trades," said his brother, Elmon Simmons, 73.

Simmons said his brother, who had lived in the neighborhood for 20 years, liked to sleep in his car on warm nights. He said he did not know who would have wanted to kill his brother. "He didn't have any enemies," Elmon Simmons said.

On C Street, where the drive-by shooting occurred, Tamy McBride, 39, said she returned home from a cocktail lounge about 2 a.m. and found her neighborhood cordoned off by police. They initially refused to let her pass but then relented, she said. She saw clothes lying in the street and a cluster of detectives standing nearby.

"I am concerned," McBride said. "I just thanked God right there. I said, 'Thank you for saving me.' "

Staff writers Aaron C. Davis and Clarence Williams contributed to this report.