Yesterday on NBC's "Meet the Press," freshman Idaho Republican Rep. Raul Labrador mistakenly ascribed the rash of murders in Prince George's County -- nine so far, including two on Saturday alone -- to the District. The slip-up came during a conversation on gun control in the wake of the attempted assassination of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ). more ›

It's a story that's been trotted out there quite a bit in recent months: the numbers on homicides in the District of Columbia are really promising right now. The Post's Martin Weil notes this morning that if current trends hold, the District is on pace to end 2010 with 115 homicides, by far the lowest total in several decades. But homicides aren't the only thing to look at when we're talking about crime in the District. We thought we'd take a look at couple of other very basic statistics to see if there was anything of interest. more ›

Lou Chibbaro, Jr. writes in the DC Agenda that a recent homicide marks the second gay man who was killed in the District in a span of only two weeks. Gordon Rivers, 47, was found on Jan. 10 in the 2600 block of Naylor Road SE, suffering from multiple gunshot wounds, and later died of his injuries. Anthony Perkins, 29, was shot to death on Dec. 27 in the 1800 block of T Street SE. So far, police say they have no evidence to suggest that the murder of Rivers was motivated by a hate crime. And in the case of Perkins, there's still no motive or suspects, but "homicide investigators said they were looking into a tip provided by Rev. Anthony Motley," who thinks "that Perkins may have been the target of an unidentified man believed to have committed a string of robberies in the neighborhood where Perkins was shot." more ›

Fifth District Citizens' Advisory Council chairman Robert Vinson Brannum sent a notice out today to the MPD-5D listserv today highlighting homicide statistics that speak for themselves: more ›

Despite another fatal shooting in Northeast last night, it's worth noting that with less than two months left to go in 2009, the District has recorded 123 homicides all year long, according to D.C. police crime data. That figure continues to reflect a 25 percent decrease in the number of homicides compared to this time last year, when there were already 164 homicides on the books. By all accounts, the Metropolitan Police Department has also seen an improvement in homicide arrests this year. more ›

Remember when D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier told the Washington Times that she believed the District of Columbia could end up with fewer than 100 homicides in 2009? more ›

At least two more suspects have now been arrested in the Aug. 18 slaying of a pizza restaurant owner in the Edgewood neighborhood, WTOP's Mark Segraves reports. One suspect, Shanika Robinson, had already been arrested in the killing of Pizza Mart co-owner Shahabuddin Rana a few weeks ago, but now her brother, Leon Robinson, has also been taken into custody and charged with first degree murder. Segraves also tells DCist that a third suspect, whose name we still don't know, has been arrested in the time since this initial report. Police allege that Rana was killed after a false marriage arrangement between Shanika Robinson and Rana's brother fell apart. Rana had been paying Robinson $500 a week to be married to his brother so that he could get a green card, according to police, but at some point Rana stopped the payments. Further complicating the sordid case is the death of Terrance Green, a D.C. police officer who committed suicide earlier this month after he was subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury in the case.
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The Examiner has an interesting pair of crime stories today, both of which note dramatic decreases in certain types of crime in the District this year. First is a story that reports the number of carjackings is way down in D.C.: there have been about 200 carjackings in the city this year, compared with approximately 600 in all of 2008. Next is a piece of speculation about whether the correlation of having an oddly cool summer season has been one of the contributing factors to this year's decrease in homicides, both in D.C. and in other American cities. more ›