Northeast D.C. man injured in beating dies

An 85-year-old Northeast Washington man died Monday after being injured while reportedly trying to break up an argument in which a woman was fatally beaten.

George McKoy, of the 3100 block of 35th Street NE, died after suffering blunt force trauma in the incident at his house this month, the D.C. police said.

Kenneth Lee Ross, 52, of Northeast Washington has been charged in the death of the woman, Rosa May Fludd-Ross, 55, his wife.

Police said that Ross was charged under a warrant Tuesday with first-degree murder while armed in the death of McKoy.

Charging documents said Fludd-Ross was found Nov. 15, on the living room floor of the house where she lived, which was owned by McKoy. McKoy was also found beaten, authorities said, and he was taken to a hospital in critical condition.

The charging documents described a bloody scene in the house. It appeared that the living room telephone cord had been pulled from the wall jack, the papers said.

Ross told police that he and Fludd-Ross had argued at the house and that he struck her with a vase, the charging documents say. Ross said that McKoy tried to break up the argument and that he pushed McKoy, the documents say.

At a court hearing, Ross's attorney, Ronald Horton of the District's Public Defender Service, said there was no evidence that Ross planned to kill his wife before what he described as a "brief scuffle" among his client, his client's wife and McKoy.

The charge in connection with his wife's death was reduced to second-degree murder, and Ross was ordered jailed pending a hearing. Police said he was taken Tuesday to the homicide office for processing in McKoy's death.

In an interview Tuesday, a former neighbor of McKoy's recalled the 85-year-old man warmly.

"All I know is that he's a good man and tried to help everybody," the neighbor said.

Describing him as a worshiper at a Baptist church in the Brookland area, the neighbor said that McKoy would occasionally do odd jobs and that he lent a hand "to anybody that needed help."