Outburst of Gun Violence Claims Four Lives in D.C.

Four people were shot to death in the District in about a seven-hour span beginning Monday evening in another outbreak of heavy overnight violence in the city, the third such occurrence since late May.

The victims, three men and a woman, were slain in three incidents, including what appeared to be an execution-style double homicide in a Southeast Washington apartment, police said. In addition, two men were wounded early yesterday in separate shootings in nearby neighborhoods off East Capitol Street.

In another shooting yesterday, a man was found critically wounded about 6:50 p.m. in the 4000 block of Minnesota Avenue NE. The man, who was hit in the face and neck, was taken to a hospital, a police source said.

Authorities announced no plans yesterday to set up checkpoints -- as they did after shootings in the Trinidad neighborhood this summer -- in response to the violence that began Monday. All the incidents occurred in different neighborhoods.

The five incidents from about 7:30 p.m. Monday to just after 2 a.m. yesterday, recalled a spate of overnight violence in the District on July 18 and 19, when two people were slain, including a 13-year-old boy, and 13 people were wounded. From the night of May 30 into the next morning, seven people were slain in the District in nine hours.

Police withheld the identities of the victims killed Monday and yesterday pending notification of relatives. The deaths brought the District's homicide total to 108 this year, compared with 105 as of July 29 last year.

The victim of the first killing Monday night was a man found shot in the head in the 3100 block of Buena Vista Terrace SE about 7:30, police said.

Then, about 11:50 p.m., police said, a man and a woman were found shot at close range in an apartment in the 1700 block of Q Street SE. About 2:15 a.m., police said, a man was fatally shot in the 1900 block of Southern Avenue SE, on the border with Prince George's County. Police said the man had been shot repeatedly.

The shootings on Southern Avenue and Buena Vista Terrace occurred about a mile from each other, police said. They said no arrests had been made.

The overnight nonfatal shootings were reported at 12:05 a.m., a little more than a mile apart on both sides of East Capitol Street. A man was hit in a leg in the 200 block of 50th Street NE, police said, and a man was hit in the chest in the 200 block of 37th Street SE. District police generally do not make public the names of victims who are not killed.

The overnight spasms of violence in late May and mid-July prompted police to set up temporary checkpoints, creating "neighborhood safety zones," in the Trinidad area of Northeast, where several of the killings occurred. Police stopped and questioned people entering the neighborhood in an effort to keep out potential troublemakers who did not live there and to create a cooling-off period.

At a news conference Monday evening, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) and Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier said the latest Trinidad checkpoints, in place since July 20, were ended Sunday night. Lanier said the neighborhood experienced a violence-free week while the checkpoints were operating.

"While this is obviously an extreme measure," Fenty said of the checkpoints, "we are of the belief that extreme circumstances require extreme responses."

In addition to discussing the Trinidad checkpoints at Monday's news conference, Fenty and Lanier announced the installation of more electronic gunshot sensors in D.C. neighborhoods.

"While it's extremely troubling to all of us when somebody loses their life," Lanier said, "we're making a difference in the city."

Lanier noted, "Homicides citywide right now are still down over last year," which was true when she said it, about 5:30 p.m. Monday. Two hours later, though, the first of the evening's homicide victims fell on Buena Vista Terrace.

Staff writers Elissa Silverman and Clarence Williams contributed to this report.