Photo by Brandon Anderson.

A fatal stabbing Sunday afternoon has pushed D.C.’s homicide count for 2015 to 102.

Metropolitan Police Department officers responded to a report of a stabbing in the 4800 block of Meade Street NE yesterday at about 2:45 p.m. When authorities arrived, they found 33-year-old Bobby Ellis of Southeast D.C. suffering from stab woulds. He was transported to a nearby hospital where succumbed to his injuries.

Ellis’ fatal stabbing was just the latest of several homicides that took place over the weekend. In the early morning hours of Saturday, August 22, 26-year-old Kenneth Earl Watson, Jr. of Northeast D.C. was fatally shot in the 300 block of 54th Street NE. And less than an hour prior, at approximately 2:51 a.m., 24-year-old Antonio Dean of Southwest D.C. was fatally shot in the 1300 block of Stevens Road SE.

Both of these homicides occurred after MPD responded to a homicide and subsequent barricade situation in the Brookland neighborhood on Friday. 63-year-old Loretta Carswell of Northeast D.C. was fatally shot Friday afternoon and the suspect subsequently barricaded himself in a nearby home for more than 24 hours. Police arrested 67-year-old Roosevelt Robinson shortly after 5 p.m. on Saturday. He’s been charged with Second Degree Murder while Armed.

With 102 murders this year so far, D.C. is on pace to surpass last year’s total homicide count of 105. With an increase in violence in the last few months, District officials have struggled to pinpoint an exact contributing factor to the rise in violent crime.

First, Mayor Muriel Bowser and MPD Chief Cathy Lanier attributed it to the rise of synthetic drugs, but have since changed their tune.

“People want to know why there has not been a clear answer given, and that’s not to say that there is an easy answer,” D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson recently said, the Post reports. “But first we were told by the mayor that it might be synthetic drugs or domestic violence, then it was illegal guns. Homicides are up. Not just up, but up by 30 percent. Layer over that changing explanations and it gives people cause for real concern.”