Man Is Arrested on Murder Charge in 1998 Shooting

Ten years ago, as a fifth-grader tried to fall asleep the night before the first day of school, a bullet whizzed through the back door of his grandmother's Southeast Washington apartment and hit his right side.

The 10-year-old boy survived, but the shooter's target was killed.

Yesterday, police arrested a Southeast man and charged him with first-degree murder in the case.

James W. Irving, 42, of the 1800 block of Valley Terrace is accused of chasing and firing at Michael N. Womack of Capitol Heights, 24, just before midnight Aug. 31, 1998. Womack, who was outside the apartment building in the 1800 block of 28th Place SE, was hit several times and died at D.C. General Hospital the next day, police said.

In addition to Antonio Anderson, the boy who was injured, a 20-year-old man standing in the apartment building was wounded.

Inspector Rodney Parks, head of the D.C. police homicide unit, said a new witness brought evidence that helped officers close the case, one of several from the 1990s that investigators closed this year. "It's never too late to close a murder," Parks said.

Police said in 1998 that they thought the shooting stemmed from an incident the week before in which someone shot at an unoccupied vehicle on 27th Street as part of a feud between a group of men who lived on 27th Street and a group who lived on 28th Place.