2023 was District’s deadliest year in more than two decades
The city recorded 40 homicides per 100,000 residents, with victims in every ward, from babies to the elderly
The nation’s capital recorded more homicides in 2023 than in any year since 1997, giving the District the fifth-highest murder rate among the nation’s biggest cities.
The 274 confirmed victims ranged from infants to octogenarians. They were killed in homes, in Metro stations and in motor vehicles; they were killed in alleys, in school zones and in public parks. They were slain on streets by acquaintances and strangers and in the crossfire of warring neighborhood crews, in double shootings and triple shootings. They died in the dark and the dawn and under the midday sun in all parts of Washington, from its poorest precincts to its busiest commercial and nightlife areas.
To illustrate the human dimension of the violence, The Washington Post compiled a comprehensive list of the casualties — a month-by-month tally of who the victims were, how they died and where — while also examining the broader trends of the city’s 2023 homicide crisis.
The loss of lives in the year just ended, including the killings of 19 children and young teenagers, plunged families and communities into grief and ignited a local political crisis that escalated to the halls of Congress. Federal officials questioned whether D.C. leaders were equipped to prevent the District from regressing to the social dysfunction and near municipal collapse of the late 20th century, when the city, overwhelmed by crack-fueled bloodshed, became known as America’s murder capital.
“It’s been a tough year,” Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) said in an interview. “There is no doubt about that.”
[As homicides and carjackings increased, D.C. retreated on policing reforms]
With a rate of 40 homicides per 100,000 residents, the District was deadlier than 55 of the country’s 60 most populous cities, behind only New Orleans, Cleveland, Baltimore and Memphis. While homicides surged in Washington, they decreased in many other metropolises, including New York and Chicago.
As in years past, the burden fell acutely on Black residents in the District’s most underserved neighborhoods, especially east of the Anacostia River. Citywide, every ward experienced killings in 2023, and, as the year ended, most had endured significant overall increases in violent crime.
More than 90 percent of the killings through Dec. 27 were by gunfire, police said. Of the 75 cases in which they had made an arrest by late November, they said, the motive in nearly half was an “argument.” At least 12 of the 75 cases stemmed from domestic disputes, eight were attributed to robberies and five to neighborhood conflicts.
No fewer than 106 children and teenagers were hit by bullets, and 16 of them were killed (while two others were beaten to death and another was fatally stabbed). Sixteen juveniles also were slain by gunfire in 2022, compared with eight the year before. And more youngsters pulled triggers in 2023 than in the past. In the first nine months of the year, for example, police reported making 458 arrests of juveniles for robbery, homicide or assault with a dangerous weapon — a 10 percent increase from the same period in 2022.
The killings in 2023 started about 6 p.m. on Jan. 3 and continued through the last days of the year.
January
17 homicides
Young lives cut short: 19 children and teens were slain last year
About 4 a.m. on the first Saturday of the year, a 13-year-old boy named Karon Blake was outside with friends on Quincy Street NE, in the Brookland neighborhood.
Inside a home nearby, a man heard noises. Jason Lewis, then 41, who worked for the D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation, walked outside carrying a handgun and saw three people who appeared to be breaking into cars, according to a police affidavit.
Lewis shouted at them, police said, before he fired shots, killing Karon. Lewis has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder.
Karon was the first of the children and young teenagers slain in 2023, one of the worst years of deadly violence for young people in D.C. in recent history. He also was one of at least three teenagers suspected of committing a crime at the time they were killed, which officials and residents say further shows how much help many young people in the city need.
That morning, surveillance cameras recorded Karon’s last words:
“I’m sorry.”
“Please don’t.”
“No.”
“I am a kid.”
People who died by homicide in January
Benjie Byers, 33, was killed in a quadruple shooting in Northwest that also injured an 8-year-old child.
Michael Jones, 52, was found dead near the White House Visitor Center, beaten by a man with a metal pole, police said.
Jasmine “Star” Mack, 36, was found with stab wounds between Gallaudet University and Mount Olivet Cemetery in Northeast.
Karon Blake, 13, was shot in the Brookland neighborhood, near his middle school.
Terry Clark, 20, was shot near Nationals Park and the Navy Yard-Ballpark Metro station.
Anthony Richardson, 23, was killed in a double shooting along the border of the Congress Heights and Bellevue neighborhoods in Southeast.
Renando Griffin, 34, was shot in Southeast.
James Brooks Jr., 53, was stabbed behind an apartment building in the Fort Dupont neighborhood of Southeast in what police said was a dispute with the man who attacked him.
Raymond Johnson, 59, was found dead with puncture wounds in the Fairlawn neighborhood of Southeast.
Dale Henson, 54, was killed in Southeast when a teen returned fire at someone who had shot him.
Antonio Bennett, 30,* was found beaten on a sidewalk in Northeast.
Mubarak Mursal, 47, was stabbed a block from Dupont Circle.
Keshon Cornish, 23, was shot in Northeast.
Morgan Francis, 56, was shot inside a residential building in Southwest.
Lennette Clark, 39, was found in a house in Northeast suffering from apparent trauma, after which a man was charged with second-degree murder.
Michael Gaddis, 36, who worked with a D.C. program that helps students get safely to and from school, was shot near a high school in Northwest.
Kelvin Gunn, 60,* drowned in a domestic dispute after a vehicle he was in with a woman plunged into the Potomac River, police said.
February
22 homicides
Gunfire in public spaces: Bullets flew near students and transit riders, diners and library patrons
The month began with a shooting rampage at a Metro station on Capitol Hill. Police said Isaiah Trotman, 31, wounded two commuters and killed a Metro employee who tried to wrestle away his gun.
Robert Cunningham, a 64-year-old power department worker for the transit agency, was a husband and father of four. At his funeral, on Valentine’s Day, his widow said: “You made us a whole and beautiful family. You taught me what love is, and I thank you for 15 years of happiness.”
Their family dog, Duke, circled his coffin.
Trotman has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder. His attorney has indicated he probably will argue that Trotman should be acquitted by reason of insanity.
The shooting, at Metro’s Potomac Avenue station, was one example of gunfire rupturing the sense of safety in places central to daily life in the city.
In separate instances last year, people were killed in a nightclub, outside of public schools, inside a library and aboard a Metro train pulling into the Waterfront station. Two children, 6 and 9, were wounded as they were getting off a Metro bus. On a spring afternoon, a 17-year-old boy was killed in the parking lot of his high school. A gunfight erupted outside a seafood restaurant in Southwest one autumn evening, sending diners ducking for cover. Two months later, a student survived a shooting that occurred as he walked to school.
“We’re focused on how we get guns out of our city,” Bowser said shortly after Cunningham’s death. “We know we have guns that are creating tragedies in our city and our nation.”
People who died by homicide in February
Robert Cunningham, 64, was hailed as a hero after intervening in the Potomac Avenue Metro shooting.
Marcus Jones, 45, was shot in a vehicle at a shopping center in Southeast.
Gregory Wilkins, 32, was found dead inside a Northeast apartment after what police think was a domestic dispute.
Aaron Robinson, 39, was shot in the lobby of an apartment building in the Petworth area of Northwest.
Darnell Peoples, 25, was shot about a mile from the Congress Heights Metro stop.
Anthony Thomas Sr., 40, was shot inside an apartment in Southeast during what police said was a domestic dispute.
Walter Henry, 68,* was killed by blunt force trauma in a domestic incident.
Thomas Goodman, 42, was shot in the Anacostia area of Southeast.
Melvin Henderson, 27, was shot in Southeast a few blocks from where Goodman was killed.
Sadae Avant, 34,* was shot in 2013 and died in 2023.
Kenithy Manns, 32, was found shot in the H Street corridor of Northeast after police received a report of “disorderly subjects” in the area.
Jayvon Jones, 21, was shot in Northeast.
Stefon Sampson, 23, was shot in the Douglass neighborhood of Southeast.
Dimitri Remache, 30, was shot in the Buena Vista neighborhood of Southeast.
Antonio Woodson, 41, was shot in the Washington Highlands neighborhood of Southeast.
Kenneth Geo Walton, 5 months, was beaten in an apartment in Cathedral Heights in Northwest.
Kevin Sharp, 30, was shot near Audi Field as D.C. United played its home opener.
David Wright, 57, was killed in a double shooting inside a home in Southeast, allegedly by a man who was on supervised release and under GPS monitoring related to previous felony convictions.
Nathaniel Howard, 54, was killed in the same shooting as Wright.
Harold Bogan, 34, was killed in a double shooting in Northeast.
Wayne Sheppard, 32, was killed in the same shooting as Bogan.
Abdulio Arias-Lopez, 59,* a Guatemalan immigrant and handyman, was killed by a man who police said admitted to cutting off Arias-Lopez’s head and arms and disposing of some of the remains in his backyard.
March
21 homicides
Domestic violence: Volatile relationships erupted in lethal rage
Police found Andrea Bond, 30, dead in the living room of a home in Northeast, sprawled on the floor in front of a love seat. This was seven days into the month. When officers arrived and examined her body, they noticed a puncture wound in her left upper chest. Nearby, blood was splattered on a pair of black-and-white shoes.
Authorities later charged her boyfriend, 31-year-old Rayvon Slye, with murder. He has not yet entered a plea in the case. Witnesses told investigators that Slye had been accused of assaulting Bond four times in the 13 months before she was killed.
In 2023, at least 19 other people in the city died in domestic violence incidents, according to police. Police Chief Pamela A. Smith said authorities are working closely with victims of domestic violence, trying to ensure that residents have the necessary information about where they can get help.
People who died by homicide in March
Brice Djembissi, 37, a Maryland teacher whose wife said they had been planning to buy a house, was hit by a stray bullet in Southeast.
Marvin Johnson Jr., 29, gunned down in Northwest, was known in the 14th street NW area as “Little Marvin” because of his close relationship with his father, with whom he lived.
Rasheed Byles, 20, was shot in Northwest.
Ali Zarrincalaki, 45, was stabbed by an acquaintance inside the D.C. library branch in Petworth in what police said was a long-running dispute between the two homeless men.
Dana Faulkner, 23, a new father, died in a shooting in Southeast.
Abdul Fuller, 15, was killed in a triple shooting outside a Southeast apartment complex.
Andrea Bond, 30, was found stabbed inside a residence in Northeast.
Johnathan Craig, 34, was stabbed in the Fairlawn neighborhood of Southeast.
Othaniel Gaither, 34, was killed in a shooting on Capitol Hill.
Hamza Abu Halaoh, 32, a Jordanian immigrant working as a driver and hoping to bring his wife and daughter to the United States, was killed in a crossfire on Capitol Hill.
King Phelps, 7 months, was found dead from blunt force trauma inside a residence in Southeast.
Donte Tiller, 43, was shot inside a vehicle in Southeast.
Traev’on Green, 16, was shot in a residential and commercial area near Suitland Parkway.
Jalen Dyer, 21, described by his family as a playful and loving young man, but one who sometimes hung around with the “wrong crowd,” as an uncle put it, was shot in Southeast.
Tariq Richardson, 20, was shot in the same incident that left Dyer dead.
Kristian Stewart, 21, was shot in Southwest.
Stephon Carroll, 24, was shot in Southeast.
Antonio Burnette, 34, was killed in a double shooting in Southeast as members of Congress were debating the District’s mounting crime and justice problems.
Sergio Nicolas Rosario Arias, 29, was killed in a triple shooting in Southeast.
Deandre Holmes, 36, was shot in Northeast.
Christy Bautista, 31, visiting D.C. for a concert, was stabbed in her hotel room in a random attack by a man with a history of targeting women, police said.
April
14 homicides
Geographic disparity: As ever, most killings were in underserved areas of the city
Dajuan Blakney, 32, was sitting on steps outside an apartment building in the Fairlawn area of Southeast on April 21 when a man approached him with a rifle, according to police. They said the assailant was an acquaintance of Blakney’s and that the two had been involved in a dispute.
Surveillance video showed the gunman shooting Blakney 10 times, police said. They said the same .223-caliber rifle would later be used in two other shootings, based on comparisons of shell casings found at those scenes and at the scene of Blakney’s killing. A suspect has been charged in the Fairlawn homicide.
Nine of the 14 killings reported in April, including Blakney’s, occurred east of the Anacostia River, a marker of the uneven distribution of violence that has historically devastated the District’s poorest neighborhoods.
As of late December, 156 of the year’s homicides had occurred in Ward 7 and Ward 8, both east of the river, where 25 percent and 28.7 percent of the population, respectively, live below the poverty line, according to the latest census data.
People who died by homicide in April
Orlando Galloway, 36, described by loved ones as a jokester and his family’s protector, was found dead in a Southeast apartment with gunshot and stab wounds.
Michael Evans, 56, was shot in Southeast.
Allen Hill Jr., 59, was shot on a residential street near the Washington Highlands and Bellevue neighborhoods in Southeast.
Wendell Davis, 65, was shot in the Greenway neighborhood of Southeast.
Terrell Coghill, 29, was shot outside a Northeast funeral home after a service for a man who had been shot a month earlier.
Mylaki Young, 16, described by his mother as “happy-go-lucky” and respectful as a child, before he fell in with a new group of teenagers and his mother began to worry that he would meet with violence, was shot on a Northwest street.
Amonte Wood, 20, was shot in the Brentwood area of Northeast.
Latanya Campbell, 33, was shot inside a vehicle in Southeast.
Raymond Carter III, 25, was shot on a sidewalk in the Shaw neighborhood of Northwest.
Dajuan Blakney, 32, was shot in the Fairlawn neighborhood of Southeast.
James Lavender, 64, was fatally beaten and found in a Northeast apartment after a fire.
Deandre Wheeler, 27, was shot in the Washington Highlands area of Southeast.
Anthony Eric Petty, 60, was shot in Southeast.
Tyrone Hopkins, 30, was shot in Northeast.
May
25 homicides
Emblem of a crisis: With the body count rising, a small girl’s killing jolted the city
Arianna Davis, 10, and her siblings were in the back seat of their parents’ Jeep Renegade just before 9:15 p.m. on Sunday, May 14, headed home from a Mother’s Day event, when a car in front of the Jeep came to a stop.
Two or three people got out of the car and began shooting, Arianna’s parents told police. Seconds later, a volley of gunfire came from a different direction, with bullets whizzing across the tree-lined street in the Mayfair neighborhood of Northeast.
The family was caught in a crossfire that lasted several seconds. Based on surveillance video, police said, some of the shots appeared to come from automatic weapons.
Arianna’s parents didn’t know she been wounded until one of her siblings called out from the back seat.
“Ari, don’t die!”
Struck in the head by a stray bullet, Arianna was pronounced dead in a hospital three days later.
Her death came to symbolize the toll of deadly violence in D.C. — a 10-year-old girl, whose favorite color was blue, killed because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Police later arrested Koran Gregory, 19, and charged him with first-degree murder while armed. His attorney, seeking to have his case dismissed, argued that there was no direct evidence tying Gregory to the crime. A prosecutor, and ultimately a judge, disagreed, and he was ordered jailed to await a trial.
People who died by homicide in May
John Coleman, 34, was shot near the National Arboretum in Northeast.
Derrick Thomas, 27, was killed in two barrages of gunfire, 32 rounds and eight rounds, in Southeast.
Kaijah McCoy, 23, was found with gunshot wounds in a Northeast apartment building.
Carlos Latney, 18, was shot near D.C.’s border with Prince George’s County in Maryland.
Marcus Carey, 47, was shot in the Mayfair neighborhood of Northeast.
Robert Washington, 58, was shot near Fort Chaplin Park in Southeast.
Aaron Derricott Jr., 24, was shot in Northwest.
Devonte Maxwell, 30, was shot in front of an apartment building in Southeast.
Calvin Gray, 29, was shot near a bustling strip of nightspots in Northwest.
Romello Hammond, 23, was shot in Southeast.
Arianna Davis, 10, killed in a crossfire, was “the sweetest little thing I ever had,” a grandfather said.
Marquis Johnson, 19, was shot in the Shipley neighborhood of Southeast.
Christopher Callahan, 64, was shot in the Bellevue area of Southwest.
Tierra Corbett, 35, was shot in the Columbia Heights neighborhood of Northwest.
Jefferson Luna-Perez, 17, was shot in the parking lot of Roosevelt High School in Northwest after he had attended classes that day.
Leonard Carter, 47, was shot in the Edgewood area of Northeast.
Little Price Jr., 36, was shot in the Congress Heights neighborhood in Southeast.
Michael Ashby, Jr., 37, was shot in Southeast.
Adrian Burgess, 19, was shot in a residential area near the District’s southern tip.
Antwoin Wilson, 43, was found with gunshot wounds in a building hallway in Southeast.
David Daniel Quarles, 26, was shot in Southeast.
Brendan Ofori, 17, was found shot aboard a Metro train at the Navy Yard-Ballpark station after what police said was an argument with his assailant.
Regina Morris, 52, was stabbed in an apartment near Nationals Park.
Fitsum Ayele Mamo, 41, was stabbed in the Anacostia neighborhood of Southeast.
Derek Hamilton, 64, was killed when a person approached his parked car in Southeast, doused it with a flammable liquid and set it on fire, according to police.
June
22 homicides
‘The city is not safe’: Year-to-date killings surpassed 100
The month began with a one-a-day homicide pace, and by the end of the first week, the year-to-date body count had reached 102. That marked the earliest point in any year that D.C. surpassed 100 killings in at least two decades.
Residents and public officials began sounding a louder alarm that the District was in the throes of a violent crime crisis. The bloodshed would intensify as summer went on.
On June 8, Lasanta Qumar McGill, 62, was fatally shot outside a row of storefronts in the Shaw neighborhood. Police said he was a bystander hit by a stray bullet from a dispute involving three other men.
A week later, Samya Gill, 22, was killed when two people with rifles walked up to a parked car where she was sitting with a man and started shooting. Gill was pregnant. Her baby, delivered by emergency Caesarean section, survived.
The month ended with four teenagers slain in 10 days.
The founder and chief executive of Digital Pioneers Academy, a charter school that lost four students to gun violence in the 2022-23 academic year, wrote a letter to parents, declaring “the city is not safe.”
People who died by homicide in June
James Samuels, 58, was shot on a Southeast street just east of the Anacostia Freeway.
Davon Walker, 35, was shot in Southeast.
Damien Thompson, 45, was stabbed in what police described as an argument on a Southeast street.
Kevin Lewis, 58, was shot in the Brentwood neighborhood of Northeast.
Joshua White, 29, was shot near the city’s southern tip.
Georgia Gray, 63, was shot in front of her Northeast residence.
Richard Hendrix, 32, was found with gunshot wounds inside a residential building in the Washington Highlands area of Southeast.
Lasanta Qumar McGill, 62, was struck by a stray bullet in a shooting that stemmed from a dispute between three men in the Shaw area.
Joseph Crockett, 43, was shot in Southeast.
Maurice Robinson, 24, was shot in what police described as a “brawl” involving multiple families in Southeast.
Samya Gill, 22, who was shot in Southeast, had wanted to leave the D.C. area because of the gun violence, her mother said.
Khalliqo Ford, 18, was shot in a parking lot near the Southwest Waterfront.
Stephon Shreeves, 14, shot in Southeast, was a “funny, kind, caring and very ambitious young man,” his family said.
DeMarcos Pinckney, 15, shot in Southeast, was a “bright student, athlete, and loyal brother and friend,” his school’s founder said.
Kevin Mason, 17, a cousin of Pinckney’s, was shot in the same incident, shortly after his family came together to celebrate Father’s Day.
George Johnson Jr., 30, was shot in Chinatown.
Atorrin Tyndle, 28, was shot in Southeast.
Jaylin Osborne, 15, shot to death in Southeast, had just finished eighth grade and liked math so much that the passwords for his devices were all long combinations of numbers he had memorized, his family said.
Nijae Boddie, 19, was shot in the Anacostia neighborhood.
Tavonayna Povida Glenn, 54, was caught in a crossfire of at least 44 shots in the Carver-Langston neighborhood of Northeast.
Alonzo Marshall, 36, was shot in Southeast.
Tymeer Roberts, 32, was shot in the Petworth neighborhood of Northwest.
July
29 homicides
Far-flung grief: The violence touched visitors and new arrivals
A spasm of deadly mayhem early in the month left bereaved families in places as distant as a suburb of Louisville and the Parwan province of Afghanistan.
Maxwell Emerson, a 25-year-old teacher from Kentucky, was visiting D.C. for a educators’ seminar when he was fatally shot on the Catholic University campus. Police said the July 5 killing occurred during a possible robbery.
Emerson, a son of two educators, had been a social studies teacher and assistant coach of the wrestling team at Oldham County High School, in Buckner, Ky. His family said he texted his mother during the attack: “Help I’m being robbed at gunpoint.”
Earlier, on July 3, Nasratullah Ahmad Yar, 31, was slain. He had been an interpreter for the Army’s Special Forces in Afghanistan before he fled the Taliban with his wife and four children. He thought they would all be safe in the United States.
Ahmad Yar was working as a Lyft driver on Capitol Hill the night he was fatally shot. His family has said they do not know whether he was killed during a robbery or a carjacking. Police have not made an arrest. A resident’s Nest camera recorded four young people running down an alley after the shooting.
“You just killed him,” one person says in the footage.
Hundreds attended his funeral. With Ahmad Yar’s coffin in the ground, his youngest son, 15-month-old Ali Ahmad, watched as men took shovels to a pile of fresh dirt beside the grave.
People who died by homicide in July
Frank Maddox, 27, was shot in the Anacostia neighborhood.
Michael Cary, 20, was shot in the Congress Heights area of Southeast.
Nasratullah Ahmad Yar, 31, was brave, smart and “always happy,” said a retired Special Forces lieutenant colonel.
Langston Sharps, 33, was shot in the Garfield Heights area of Southeast.
Charles Antonio Stanton, 44, was shot in Northeast as he appeared to be trying to leave an area on a bicycle.
Keith Bradley, 54, was shot in the driver’s seat of a vehicle on Eastern Avenue NE.
Nathaniel Holmes, 28, was shot in Southeast.
Jesse Benitez, 22, the last of four men killed in separate incidents on the Fourth of July, was shot in the Columbia Heights neighborhood.
Maxwell Emerson, 25, was shot on the Catholic University campus.
Alison Cienfuegos-Vasquez, 21, a community college student who was excited about returning to classes in the fall, was shot in Southeast.
Nolan Edwards, 34, was shot in the Benning neighborhood of Northeast.
Charles Sullivan, 30, was shot inside a Circle Seven Express store in Northeast.
Elias Key, 55, was shot in Northeast’s Eckington neighborhood.
Rafael Adolfo Gomez, 34, who grew up on a farm in El Salvador, was shot in a robbery on Howard University’s campus, where he had been working a construction job that family members said reminded him of rebuilding houses for friends and loved ones back home.
Pamela Taylor, 34, was shot in Southeast.
Dzhoy Zuckerman, 27, shot in Northwest, was a jovial, charismatic fixture in D.C.’s bicycling community.
Robert Lavender, 44, described by his wife as the “provider and foundation of our home,” was shot in the Brookland neighborhood of Northeast near a burger shop where he worked as a manager.
Malik Haggans, 27, was shot in Southeast.
Luke Whitaker, 29, was shot during an apparent argument in Columbia Heights.
Zion Hollingsworth-Hayes, 19, was “an uninvolved victim” struck by stray bullets during the attack on Whitaker, police said.
Antoine Ealey, 43, stabbed in Southeast, put others before himself and worked hard to care for his siblings and daughter, his sister said.
Arnold Humberto Solis, 30, was shot while watching a soccer game in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of Northwest.
Monte Daniels, 33, was stabbed in Northeast during what police said was an argument.
Charles Luster Jr., 56, was shot in the Washington Highlands neighborhood.
Tyjon Clayton, 20, was shot in the same incident in which Luster was killed.
Tyshida Williams, 31, was found with gunshot wounds inside a residence in Southwest.
Donald B. Childs, 46, shot in Northwest, was a father of six and a “loving, giving, caring, happy, and funny guy,” his mother said.
Terence Akindo, 24, was shot on a residential street in the Brentwood area of Northeast.
Russell Wiseman, 44, was shot near Gallaudet University in Northeast.
August
33 homicides
The deadliest month: The killings forced political leaders to act
The District’s worst month of homicide in 2023 began with 13 people fatally shot in five days. There were two triple shootings. One was blocks from a bustling strip of bars in Adams Morgan; another was at an intersection in Anacostia.
Among the victims was 16-year-old Naima Liggon. She had been with friends at a party on Saturday, Aug. 26, after which, in the wee hours of Sunday, they went to a McDonald’s restaurant near 14th and U streets NW. Outside the McDonald’s, a fight erupted over a packet of sweet-and-sour sauce, police said, and Naima was stabbed to death by one of her companions, a 16-year-old girl who later pleaded as a juvenile to voluntary manslaughter.
The surge of violence came as city leaders were introducing a flurry of legislation aimed at reversing the crime trends. The D.C. Council passed an emergency bill that would make it easier for authorities to detain people accused of violent crimes while they await trials; Bowser selected a new police chief; and the U.S. attorney for the District, Matthew M. Graves, started charging more youths as adults when they were suspected in multiple robberies.
Frustrated by the relentless drumbeat of gunfire, council member Trayon White Sr. (D-Ward 8) declared, “We need the National Guard in D.C.”
People who died by homicide in August
Diallo Wright, 23, was shot on 16th Street NW, near Columbia Heights and Mount Pleasant.
Darnell Gibson, 26, was shot in front of a residence in Southwest.
Trevon Tillman, 31, was shot near Kenilworth Park & Aquatic Gardens in Northeast.
Richard Silver, 40, was shot near his home in the Edgewood area of Northeast.
Denzel Greenwood, 33, was shot near the U Street Metro station.
Anthony Jordan, 42, was stabbed inside a Southeast residence in a domestic dispute, after which his body was placed in a dumpster.
Vincent Harvey, 31, was shot near the border between the District and Prince George’s County.
James Morgan, 34, was shot with his brother, Jamal, two blocks from a strip of bars and restaurants on 18th Street in Adams Morgan.
Jamal Morgan, 30, was shot with his brother.
Vincent Martin, 42, was shot in Adams Morgan and died the next day.
Andre Baker, 19, was shot near the U Street Metro station.
Tymea Cook, 27, killed in a triple shooting in Southeast, had made the educations of her two young daughters a priority in her life, an aunt said.
Bernard Hodges, 35, also was killed in the triple shooting, after which his widow said, “He gave me the world, and the world took him away.”
Reginald Gilbert, 34, also was killed in the triple shooting.
Kevin James, 32, was shot in Southeast.
Antonio Brown, 28, was shot on North Capitol Street NW.
Ebone Lavender, 42, was shot in Southwest on the block where she lived.
Jesus Sanchez, 45, was shot in Northwest and died four days later.
Brent Hayward, 33, was shot in the Kenilworth area of Northeast.
Kevin Scott, 33, was shot near the Columbia Heights Metro station.
Justin Garland, 32, was shot in Southeast.
Eddie Curtis, 71, was shot in Northeast.
Kevin McDowell, 34, was shot on H Street NE.
Alando Pugh, 40, was shot in Southwest and died four days later.
Darrow Johnson, 34, was stabbed in Southeast and died two days later.
Robert Ferguson, 44, was shot in Anacostia.
Anthony Smith, 26,* was found with gunshot wounds in Northeast.
Larry Thomas, 27, was shot near Mount Pleasant and Columbia Heights.
Jaqiah Johnson, 18, was shot in Southeast.
Keni Edwards, 18, was found with gunshot wounds in Northwest.
Naima Liggon, 16, stabbed outside a McDonald’s in Northwest, had been learning to drive a car and had just been hired at a Krispy Kreme doughnut shop near her home.
Tekoar Jennette, 47,* was shot in the Marshall Heights neighborhood of Southeast.
Jamal Walton, 25, was shot in Southeast.
September
30 homicides
Rapid fire: Officials noted a continuing proliferation of powerful guns
Gunmen fired more than 100 rounds in the Shaw neighborhood on the night of Sept. 1, blocks from the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. The barrage killed two people — 19-year-old Mikeya Ferguson and 18-year-old Cle’shai Perry — and injured a teenage girl who was not publicly identified.
The fusillade illustrated a trend that D.C. officials and criminal justice experts have said explains some of the violence in Washington: The growing number of firearms in the city, including some with machine gun capabilities.
Last year, D.C. police recovered 3,148 firearms through Dec. 27 — about the same pace as the 3,152 seized in 2022. As recently as 2019, police had found or confiscated fewer than 2,300 guns.
There also has been an increase in the number of guns seized in D.C. with a small device installed that turns semiautomatic firearms into weapons capable of firing automatically with one squeeze of the trigger. Graves, the U.S. attorney, said 27 such weapons were recovered in 2021. The number rose to 119 in 2022. As of late fall 2023, authorities had recovered more than 150 firearms equipped with the device.
Meanwhile, by the end of September, D.C. surpassed 200 homicides at the earliest point in any year since 1997.
People who died by homicide in September
Mannin Quarles, 32, was shot in Southeast.
Mikeya Ferguson, 19, was shot with two others near a recreation center in Shaw.
Cle’shai Perry, 18, was shot with Ferguson.
Richard Ruffin III, 43, was shot in Northwest.
Zyion Turner, 15, was found with gunshot wounds inside a home in Southeast.
Marquette West, 29, was shot in Northeast near the border with Prince George’s County.
Lucy Williams, 70, was found shot in a Southwest apartment, and a man also was found dead in the apartment, in what police said was a possible murder-suicide.
Marcus Thurman, 30,* was stabbed in Northeast during an argument.
Daysean Snowden, 18, was shot in the far southern corner of the District.
Matthew Anthony Miller, 32, was one of five people shot in a residence in Southwest, and the only one who died.
Brandon Gant, 23, was found with gunshot wounds in a crashed car in Southeast.
Jordan Coates, 21, was shot in Northeast by someone she was in a “romantic relationship” with, according to police.
Ryan Morgan, 31, died Sept. 11 after being wounded in a triple shooting in June in Southwest.
Antonio Cunningham, 17, was gunned down in a robbery in Northeast near the sandwich shop where he worked.
Michael McKinney, 34, was shot in Northeast.
William Jones, 27, was shot in Southeast.
Dwain Francis Day, 64, was one of two people shot early one evening in Marvin Gaye Park in Northeast.
Amar Harris, 24, was found shot inside a Southeast residence.
Blake Bozeman, 31, who had been a starting guard for Morgan State University’s basketball team for four years, was shot inside a club on H Street NE.
Jamal Jones, 16, was shot in Anacostia.
Vashawn Jones, 22, was shot in Southeast.
Tangia Tates-Little, 40, was shot near her residence in Southeast.
Maurice Jackson Jr., 16, shot two blocks from Dunbar High School while headed home, was a junior at the school and interested in entrepreneurship and architecture.
Kamal Jones, 21, killed when people in two vehicles opened fire on each other in Southeast, was walking to a grocery store when he was shot, according to an aunt.
Nathaniel Limes, 41, was killed in a double shooting in Northeast.
James Cooper, 46, was killed with Limes.
Keith Sistare, 52,* suffered blunt force trauma when he was struck by a man who was trying to stop him from getting into another person’s vehicle at a gas station, police said.
Gordon Wilson, 88,* was hit in the head inside his residence in Northwest.
Thomas Levi Gray, 61,* was struck with a board near Capitol Hill.
Maria Lopez, 45,* was found dead after a fire at a Northwest residential building.
October
16 homicides
Fewer bodies: After a summer of mayhem, the bloodshed eased slightly
The victims slain that month included Anee Roberson, 30, who was assaulted outside a popular nightspot at Ninth and U Streets NW, and 52-year-old Patricia Johnson, shot in her home in an incident that police said was “domestic in nature.”
The number of killings in October, each leaving grief-stricken families and loved ones, was down from the same month in 2022, when 18 people were slain. Some residents and public officials hoped the slower pace indicated that after a notably brutal summer, the city was on the right track.
Meanwhile, Bowser rolled out yet another piece of public safety legislation that she said would “send the strong message that violence is not acceptable in our city.”
That bill, which is still under consideration by the D.C. Council, would establish new felony crimes for engaging in or “directing” organized retail theft. It also would revive a discarded D.C. policy from 1996 that allowed the police chief to declare temporary “drug-free zones” in which people suspected of using or dealing drugs could be arrested for refusing orders to disperse. In 1990, a judge threw out an earlier iteration of the law as unconstitutional.
People who died by homicide in October
Patricia Johnson, 52, was shot in her Southeast home.
Leo Colter, 56, was found shot on a park bench in McPherson Square.
Malik Lyons, 28,* described by relatives as a family man who loved to dance, died after being shot months earlier in Northwest.
Joshua Starr, 37, was shot multiple times in the Barry Farm area of Southeast.
Alonzo Jessi Atkins, 36, was found shot in a Northwest alley near a day-long neighborhood event featuring musical performances and other family activities.
Carlos Haythe, 21, was shot in Northeast.
Anee Roberson, 30, died after she was assaulted and struck by a vehicle on U Street NW.
DaVon Fuller, 28, once a standout in the classrooms and on the football field at Dunbar High School, was shot in the parking lot of a Northeast shopping plaza.
Cahli Thomas, 29, was one of two men shot inside a vehicle on the edge of Capitol Hill.
Raequan Williamson, 24, was found shot in a vehicle in Northeast.
Reggie Brown, 64, was found beaten in a Northwest alley.
Daniel Hansford, 37, was shot in Northeast.
Diamonte Lewis, 24, was found with gunshot wounds on U Street.
Anthony Stewart, 67, was shot in Southeast.
Melvin Kenneth Dock, 23, was shot in Southeast.
Kwame Keith, 25, was shot several times in Southeast, after which his body was placed in a trash can.
November
21 homicides
Deadly stickups: Armed robberies added to the scourge of violence
On Nov. 2, authorities arrested two teenagers who they said were members of a street crew responsible for at least five robberies, one of which killed 17-year-old Antonio Cunningham.
Police said Antonio, a high school junior, had been accosted by the teens weeks earlier, on the afternoon of Sept. 11, while he was on his way to an after-school job at a Jersey Mike’s sub shop in the Brentwood neighborhood of Northeast. He had been earning the first paychecks of his young life.
The assailants appeared to have wanted his sneakers, police said. One of them shot Antonio in the head.
Marlan Smith Jr., 16, and Anthony Monroe, 17, were charged as adults with first-degree murder, assault with a dangerous weapon and several counts of robbery. Police alleged that they had committed a string of attacks in which teenagers were robbed of footwear at gunpoint. Smith and Monroe, who were ordered held to await trials, have not yet entered pleas, according to court records.
Antonio’s death came as D.C. continued to face spikes in armed robberies. While a vast majority of incidents did not turn fatal, the District reported a 68 percent increase in robberies last year compared with 2022.
Antonio had five younger sisters, including a 6-year-old. He liked to wait with her at a bus stop as she headed to school.
People who died by homicide in November
Julius Mccree, 36, was shot in Southeast near the District’s border with Maryland.
Johansel Encarnacion, 29, shot in Columbia Heights, was a father of three toddlers, including twins.
Niko Estep, 14, was shot as he and others rode by a Northwest gas station on scooters.
Michael Delvaughn Hall, 23, was shot in Southeast.
Charles Towles, 22, was found with gunshot wounds in Southeast.
James Deale, 38, was shot in Southeast near the city’s border with Prince George’s County.
Charles Rodgers, 55,* was shot in Southeast in 1992 and died of his injuries in 2023.
Kelvin Hamlett, 41, was found in the driver’s seat of a Chevrolet Trailblazer in Northeast with a gunshot wound to his left side.
Leon Carter, 31, was one of two men shot inside a Northeast residence.
Keith Lawrence, 43, was shot with Carter.
Travis Dash, 41, found stabbed in a residential building in Northwest, was allegedly killed by his 13-year-old son, who had “suffered a lifetime of domestic abuse,” according to a defense attorney.
Marcus Little, 52, was shot in Southeast.
Emanuel Martinez, 24, was shot in Southeast.
Nakysia Rachael Lemon-Williams, 26, was found with gunshot wounds on a sidewalk in Southeast.
Carlos Javier-Blanco Fernandez, 38, was shot near an empty lot along New York Avenue NE during rush hour.
Shane Williams, 18, was shot in Southeast.
Anwar Wingate, 24, was found in a Shaw parking garage with a gunshot wound.
Treyvon Wilson, 18, was shot in the parking garage of an apartment building in Southeast.
Rodney Snead, 35, was shot outside a Southeast elementary school around dismissal time, prompting a lockdown.
Gary Lavon Love III, 29, was shot near the southern tip of the District.
Daniel Lamont Adams, 34, was shot on Benning Road NE and showed up wounded at a fire station.
December
24 homicides
Ceaseless sorrow: The year ended, but the pain is everlasting
By Christmastime, Arianna Davis’s siblings, who witnessed their sister’s death in a Mother’s Day crossfire, had lived nine months without her. Meanwhile, the mother of Naima Liggon, stabbed in August in a fight over sweet-and-sour sauce, had watched the teenager who killed her daughter plead guilty.
With the holidays approaching, loved ones of the slain in 2023 were preparing for empty seats at their tables, including the family of 36-year-old Julius Mccree, shot to death in Southeast the month before.
He left a daughter, Ja’Mari Mccree, now 13, who is halfway through seventh grade. She last saw her dad the Saturday before a gunman killed him in the wee hours of a Wednesday. He took her to a shoe store to pick out a birthday present. Ja’Mari chose a pair of sneakers, light blue and pink. They talked about her classes and how important it was to stay in school.
“I love you,” she said as she waved goodbye.
“I love you, too,” he replied.
A few days later, she arrived at school particularly excited. It was homecoming, and Ja’Mari was in her middle school’s cheer group. That meant she would star in the day’s pep rally.
She texted her father “good morning,” as she did most days.
She didn’t hear back.
A few hours later, Ja’Mari’s mother arrived at the school. Ja’Mari only remembers hearing that her dad had been killed and feeling her body shake.
She decided to stay in school that day.
“Because that’s what my dad would want me to do.”
People who died by homicide in December
Brandon Lewis, 23, was shot in a building in the Brentwood area of Northeast during what police said was an argument.
Michael Hansley, 38, was shot in Northeast.
Dionte Claytor, 26, shot in Southeast, was “funny, and he was kind of sensitive,” his father said.
Tyejuan Harkum, 24, shot in Southeast, was a father of a 3-year-old girl and was studying forensic sciences at Virginia State University.
Charmaine Smith, 71, was stabbed in Southeast in a dispute over $20, police said.
Sharron Hilda Schwartz, 81, was stabbed during an argument in her Northwest home, allegedly by her husband, who was described in a police affidavit as being mentally troubled.
Neil Clark, 49, was shot in the 16th Street Heights area of Northwest.
Octavio Quintano, 28, was shot in Northeast with his brother during a “verbal altercation” with an assailant who indicated after his arrest that he had meant to shoot someone else, according to police.
Osmine Quintano, 35, was shot with his brother, Octavio.
Marcus Vines, 27, was shot in Northeast.
Kenneth Barksdale Jr., 28, was shot in Southeast.
Jihad Darden, 27, was shot in Northwest.
Reyna Garcia-Lopez, 31, was found with stab wounds in a Northwest residence by police responding to a domestic disturbance call.
Lance Anthony Holmes, 65, who worked as a traveling barber, was shot in Southeast.
Patricia Harris, 35, was shot near Nationals Park, around the corner from where she lived.
Unidentified man, found fatally shot inside a residence in the Washington Highlands area of Southeast.
Tyrone Jacobs, 24, whose son was nearing his fifth birthday, was shot with Harris.
Tejuan Coleman, 31, shot in his old Southeast neighborhood, was a truck driver for a cement company and a father of four who was engaged to be married.
Torrell O’Neal, 32, was shot Christmas morning near the Brightwood area of Northwest.
Tyvez Monroe, 27, was found shot outside the L’Enfant Plaza Metro station in Southwest.
Ronald Crews, 19, was found dead on Hunt Place NE, although police believe he had been shot nearly two miles away.
Freddie Lee Crawford, 51, was found shot in the Kingman Park area of Northeast.
Dekhota Evans, 18, died at a hospital after being shot in the LeDroit Park area of Northwest.
Dwayne Barbour, 39, shot earlier in December in Southeast, died New Year’s Eve.
Methodology
The victims listed here were ruled to have died by criminal homicide. The tally does not include people killed in homicides deemed to be noncriminal, such as justified police shootings or cases of self-defense. Not all victim names could be immediately obtained.
*Victims are listed in the months in which they died or in which their deaths were classified as homicides. Asterisks denote people who succumbed to injuries they incurred in earlier months or years, or people whose deaths were not ruled to be homicides until long after they were killed.
About this story
Reporting by Emily Davies, John D. Harden and Peter Hermann. Editing by Paul Duggan and Tara McCarty. Copy editing by Thomas Heleba. Design and development by Stephanie Hays. Design editing by Christian Font. Photo editing by Mark Miller.
Illustrations by Janelle Washington for The Washington Post.