Teenager Is Fatally Stabbed in Columbia Heights

A 14-year-old was fatally stabbed yesterday in the Columbia Heights area of Northwest Washington, possibly in a fight involving half a dozen or more youths. It was the third killing in three days in a one-mile radius.

The teenager was found about 4:30 p.m. in the roadway near 14th and Newton streets NW.

Police identified the slain youth early today as Giovanni Sanchez, of the 1300 block of Underwood Street NW, about a mile north of where he was killed.

D.C. Council member Jim Graham (D) said he understood that the stabbing occurred after a fight involving groups of youths. Police said they were trying to determine whether gang activity was involved.

A witness said that about the time of the stabbing, he saw several youths, one with a knife, two others with belts around their fists, urging each other on as they raced up 14th Street.

He said the youth with the knife carried it in his right hand and wore a mask and a black hood. As the man waited to cross the street, he said, he saw one of the other youths pull off his belt and wrap it around a hand.

There "must have been a dozen or so kids who ran northbound," the man said. There was "a huge group that took off," the man said. "I couldn't make out who was chasing who."

He said he heard the youths calling to each other as they ran, "come on, come on."

After the stabbing, someone knocked on the door of a firehouse on 14th Street to summon aid.

Someone who went to help the youth and declined to be identified by name said the victim appeared to be unable to speak and "was going downhill fast."

He was pronounced dead at a hospital at 5:07 p.m., less than an hour after the stabbing, police said. They said he appeared to have "multiple stab wounds."

Although the youth fell near Newton Street, it was believed that he might have been stabbed some distance away.