Columbian Thomas, aka Cruddy Murda, was sentenced on Tuesday to more than 13 years in federal prison for his part in a major conspiracy to distribute more than 4,000 grams of fentanyl-laced pills between California and D.C. Thomas pleaded guilty to distributing 400 or more grams of fentanyl in May following his June 2023 arrest.

Public health experts say the overall prevalence of the powerful synthetic opioid likely contributed to the spike in overdose deaths in D.C. and elsewhere. Midyear data on opioid-related overdose deaths in D.C. offered hope of reversing a five-year trend of consecutive increases. More than 2,000 D.C. residents have died since 2018 as a result of opioid overdoses.

According to a court filing by the United States Attorney’s Office for D.C., Thomas first joined the cross-country drug-dealing network when fellow D.C. rapper and co-conspirator Marvin Anthony Bussie, aka Money Marr, introduced him to Hector David Valdez, the conspiracy’s primary defendant, in August 2020.

Valdez, a Los Angeles-based drug trafficker, peddled counterfeit oxycodone pills laced with fentanyl that the DEA tracked to the Mexican Sinaloa cartel. He brought Thomas into the enterprise to purchase and transport the drugs from California to sell in the District.

During a visit to L.A. in October 2022, Valdez offered Thomas a rate of $0.75 per pill for six “boats” (meaning 6,000 pills). Thomas told Valdez, “Bra, I always get more [then] six,” according to court documents. The investigation also found that Thomas and Valdez organized the shipment and smuggling of counterfeit pills from L.A. to addresses in Northeast D.C. 

In a post to his Instagram story, which prosecutors used as evidence in the case, Thomas shared a picture of himself with a large stack of cash and a caption, “I ❤️Cali !!!!” Another collection of stories titled “Its nuffin#cali,” features photos and videos of him in and around L.A. One video features a sticker image of Joaquín Guzmán, better known as El Chapo, the former head of the Sinaloa cartel, who is currently serving a life sentence.

Over the course of Thomas’ dealings with Valdez, authorities were already working on uncovering their drug trafficking network as part of the Drug Enforcement Agency’s “Operation Blues Brothers.” The investigation was sparked by the 2021 overdose death of 20-year-old D.C. resident Diamond Lynch.

“On that day, a young woman named Diamond Lynch took a pill—one pill—and died almost immediately,” DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said during a press conference last year.

In June 2023, authorities obtained and executed arrest warrants for six alleged members of the conspiracy, including Thomas. Law enforcement agents found Thomas in his bedroom with a plastic bag containing 100 counterfeit oxycodone pills and a Glock 21 handgun outfitted with a “giggle switch” that turns the weapon into a fully automatic machine gun.

Since his arrest, Thomas updated his Instagram bio to include the phrase “#FreeDaCruddy” and released a mixtape in Sep. 2023 titled “#FreeTheCruddy.”

Several of his family members, including his grandmother, cousin, and father, as well as the mother of his 1-year-old son, who was born after his arrest, wrote letters to the judge asking for leniency.

“Not being able to be a father to his son is destroying him,” Thomas Sr. wrote to the judge. “I think that is also destroying my grandson. Please show leniency when sentencing him.”
U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly handed Thomas a sentence of 160 months—eight months fewer than what the prosecutors requested—followed by five years of supervised release.

A Pretrial Services Officer with the Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency for D.C. pleaded guilty on Monday to leaking personal information about an alleged gang member to her then-boyfriend, a member of a rival gang.

According to court records in Dameshia Cooper’s case, her boyfriend texted her on the evening of Oct. 19, 2022, asking for the address of a rival gang member who was in CSOSA’s case management database.

At the time, Cooper’s boyfriend, identified in court records as “Person 1,” was being held at the DC Jail on charges of assault with murderous intent and conspiracy to commit murder in the first degree.

“I need [his] addy,” Cooper’s boyfriend texted her.

“Ok, I’ll send it tomorrow,” she immediately replied.

Cooper sent him a photo of the man the next afternoon, asking him if it was the right person. He “liked” the image, and Cooper sent him the man’s address in Silver Spring, where he was in home confinement. Her boyfriend “loved” the message, before forwarding the information to other members of his gang.

On Nov. 2, 2022, Cooper’s boyfriend texted her again to ask when his rival gang member, who is referred to in court documents as “Person 2,” would next appear in court.

“I need to see when slim next court date [Person 2] and make some time for me to talk to you later I really miss you,” he texted. Cooper sent him the court dates four minutes later.

As part of an FBI investigation into the incident, special agents contacted Cooper in September 2023, and she agreed to an interview. She initially denied that she had leaked any confidential information, but after further questioning, she admitted to sharing Person 2’s name, address, and photo with her boyfriend.

It’s unclear if, or how, the boyfriend or his associates used the confidential information. A spokesperson for the United States Attorney’s Office for D.C. declined to provide further details in that regard.

Cooper was originally charged on Aug. 21 with disclosure of confidential information. She pleaded guilty on Oct. 21 and faces up to a year in prison and a fine of $100,000. The guilty plea also requires that she be removed from her job with PSA.

The number of reported crimes targeting Jewish and Israeli people in D.C. has increased over the past year, according to Metropolitan Police Department data. The spike coincides with Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, and the subsequent Israel-Hamas war in Gaza that continues today.

Despite the increase in reports of antisemitic hate, federal prosecutors pursue criminal hate crime charges in only a fraction of cases.

Last month, the United States Attorney’s Office for D.C., which handles most felony crimes, filed just its second federal hate crime case in the past year—an attack on a Jewish man in Foggy Bottom.

According to the indictment, Foggy Bottom resident Ariel Golfeyz was walking to work when he noticed a fist coming toward his face out of the corner of his eye. Golfeyz then felt his jaw crack before he fell to the ground.

“You are murdering innocent men, women, and children in Gaza,” his attacker shouted. “You control us with money,” the man, later identified by authorities as Walter James, continued to yell.

James proceeded to punch and kick Golfeyz until police officers stepped in and arrested him. He was charged and convicted under a federal hate crime statute and faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

Golfeyz, who was wearing a kippah (or yarmulke) at the time, has since said he is now afraid to walk around the city with any outward representation of his religious identity.

The USAO has published breakdowns of the 763 reported hate crimes (officially called “bias-related crimes” under D.C. law) from 2019 to 2023. MPD made arrests in 236 cases, about 30 percent. Of those 236 cases, federal prosecutors brought 169 charges, but only 37—about 4 percent of the total reports—were filed as hate crimes. (The USAO’s figures don’t include those cases that MPD sent to the Office of the Attorney General.)

In 2023 specifically, MPD received 150 reports of potential hate crimes—an increase over the previous year and the highest total since 2019. The department made arrests in 36 cases; federal prosecutors brought hate crime charges in just eight of them.

As of Aug. 31 of this year, MPD received 103 reports of hate crimes—a slight increase from the same time last year. MPD tells City Paper that it has closed 40 of those cases with an arrest.

While reports of hate crimes saw a significant decrease in the District in 2020, reports of crimes targeting Jewish and Israeli people have spiked in the past year following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel and the subsequent Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

The department received 35 reports of antisemitic hate crimes in 2023, topping the previous high of 31 in 2017, according to available data. That year, then-President Donald Trump announced the U.S. Embassy’s move to Jerusalem.

Large demonstrations as a result of the recent conflict in Gaza took place in the District in November 2023. The National March on Washington: Free Palestine convened at Freedom Plaza on Nov. 4, and tens of thousands of people came to the National Mall for the March for Israel on Nov. 14.

Most of the political fervor has been confined to peaceful protests, but in the two months following the Oct. 7 attacks, MPD received 14 reports of hate crimes directed at Jewish and Israeli people.

The department received three reports of crimes targeting Muslims, Palestinians, or Arab people in 2023. The first was on Oct. 6; the other two were on Oct. 12 and Dec. 6, respectively.

Student encampments protesting the war at George Washington University and other college campuses throughout the country in April and into May 2024 prompted outcry from Republican members of Congress, some of whom called the gatherings in D.C. “unlawful, antisemitic, and disruptive.”

Contrary to those claims, MPD did not receive any reports of antisemitism for the duration of the encampment at GWU, according to police data; the only reported act of antisemitism in May came several weeks after the encampment ended.

The District is not an outlier in this recent upward trend in antisemitic crimes. Reports have found that antisemitic incidents nationwide hit a record high of nearly 9,000 last year. A 2023 survey by the American Jewish Committee, a Jewish advocacy organization, determined that more than 90 percent of American Jews and nearly three-quarters of adults in the U.S. regard antisemitism as a serious problem.

Reported crimes targeting Muslims, Palestinians, and Arabic people increased from three in 2023 to six so far this year. In April, the Council on American-Islamic Relations said it received the highest number anti-Muslim bias complaints in its 30-year history. The 8,061 complaints from across the country include reports of employment bias as well as hate crimes, which made up 7.5 percent of complaints.

This year, the USAO has prosecuted only two federal hate crime cases—both alleged acts of antisemitism. The office drew criticism in 2019 following a Washington Post investigation that revealed the deep disparity between reported hate crimes and prosecutions of them.

Unlike the federal law, which spells out individual hate crimes, the D.C. code doesn’t designate stand-alone hate crimes. Rather, it allows for other crimes to be prosecuted with a “bias-related” enhancement that allows judges to impose harsher sentences.

This year’s first federal hate crime indictment, handed down in August, accused Ohio resident Brent Wood of three counts of forceful religious obstruction. In Dec. 2023, Wood allegedly drove a U-Haul truck on the sidewalk in front of the Kesher Israel synagogue in Georgetown, and proceeded to spray aerosol on the congregants while yelling, “Gas the Jews!” Wood faces a maximum of 20 years in prison for each of the counts.

Although Jewish and Israeli people were most affected by hate crimes motivated by religion and ethnicity, the highest proportion of reported hate crimes were committed on the basis of the victim’s sexual orientation or gender expression.

Of the 150 hate crimes reported to MPD last year, more than 60 (40 percent) listed the motivating factor as sexual orientation or gender expression. Many attacks on members of the LGBTQIA community are not included in this count because of how difficult it is to prove that bias was a motivating factor in the crime.

Last month, for example, a jury in D.C. found Jerry Tyree guilty of shooting Kayla Fowler, a transgender woman, in the genitals in November 2023. Federal prosecutors announced the conviction in a press release titled “Convicted Felon Found Guilty of Shooting a Transgender Victim,” yet the office did not charge Tyree with a hate crime.

According to evidence that the USAO presented in court, Fowler agreed to perform oral sex on Tyree for a price. After the act, Tyree accused Fowler of robbing him, which she denied, and Tyree then pulled out a silver pistol and shot her in the genitals. Tyree was found guilty of aggravated assault while armed and other gun and drug crimes.

A spokesperson for the USAO says that in order to file hate crime charges, prosecutors need a witness who can testify to the fact that a crime was motivated by bias.

Tyree maintained throughout the trial that he was not aware of the fact that Fowler was transgender, and no witnesses were able to confirm that his assault was motivated by her gender identity, so prosecutors were not able to charge him with a hate crime, according to the USAO.

Similarly, MPD officers arrested Chanae Ridian Watson on Sept. 23 after she threatened employees at a Chipotle in Columbia Heights. A police affidavit says Watson’s mother slipped on the sidewalk outside the restaurant, and Watson asked to speak to a manager. She eventually became “irate,” in part because two employees were speaking Spanish to each other, the affidavit says. Watson then started threatening to “shoot this bitch up,” and telling employees she would “come back and wait for you outside.” 

Watson continued to yell: “You aren’t even born here, you are not a citizen,” and “this is America, learn English,” according to police, adding that she was going to vote for Donald Trump. MPD officers arrested Watson on suspicion of making threats to kidnap or injure a person, unlawful entry, and hate crime based on racial group animus. But the USAO only charged Watson with threats to do harm, and no hate-crime enhancement. 

“I feel very unsafe, and every day, I and our team feel not safe coming to work,” one Chipotle employee told NBC Washington last month. 

“We come here to work and support the country,” another employee told the station. “We do a lot of things that other people don’t want to do it, and they see how we work, but I feel unappreciated.”

Tamonie Chambliss, a member of the “Clay Terrace Hitsquad,” was sentenced to 46 months in federal prison this week for illegal distribution of weed and unlawful firearm possession.

In June, Chambliss, aka Moneyman Biggs, pleaded guilty to charges stemming from searches of various properties tied to him that turned up more than 10 pounds of cannabis as well as illegal handguns and ammunition.

D.C. police became aware of Chambliss through his Instagram account, where he advertised weed with packaging displaying his face and profile name, according to court filings.

Officers initially arrested Chambliss in March 2023 near the Richardson Dwellings apartments in Northeast. The Metropolitan Police Department’s Sixth District Crime Suppression Team noticed a group of people surrounding a gray Lexus, who “quickly departed when the cruiser approached.” Court records indicate that the car had a tag that was reported stolen, and police eventually searched the vehicle after a K9 alerted to the presence of a firearm. Officers found cannabis, Oxycodone pills, an extended magazine with ammunition, and a vehicle registration with Chambliss’ name on it.

Chambliss, who had been standing nearby but was not in the vehicle when officers arrived, was arrested, but prosecutors declined to bring charges.

MPD later obtained a warrant to search Chambliss’ apartment in Northeast in July 2023. Officers found more weed and a .45 caliber Glock pistol. Chambliss, who is not allowed to possess a firearm due to a previous conviction, was not in the apartment when officers conducted the search, according to the feds.

Chambliss continued to post photos to his Instagram with stacks of cash and bags of what appears to be weed in between music videos.

U.S. Marshals arrested Chambliss in March at an address in Laurel. When they took him into custody, officers found about seven and a half pounds of weed, according to court filings. All told, authorities found about 10 ½ pounds of cannabis that they’ve connected to Chambliss. In a press release announcing Chambliss’ sentence, federal prosecutors say his arrest is part of a larger investigation into the “Clay Terrace Hitsquad,” or the “Double Back Gang,” which they suspect of deal in illegal firearms and drugs such PCP, crack cocaine, fentanyl, and cannabis.

Chambliss pleaded guilty to illegal distribution of cannabis and illegal possession of a firearm by someone who previously committed a crime of violence. While he acknowledges in his sentencing memorandum the potential dangers of illegally selling pot, he also notes that “there were no allegations of violence in connection with the facts which support [this] plea.”

“The possession of the substance Mr. Chambliss has acknowledged is indeed lawful in the local jurisdiction in certain amounts,” his lawyer, Brian McDaniels, writes in the memo. “This is not offered to suggest that Mr. Chambliss’ actions in this regard were lawful, only that they appear to be an effort to allow for the support of both himself and of his family.”

D.C. police officers conduct warrantless searches—known as a “stop and frisk”—that disproportionately impact Black people in D.C., a new report from the American Civil Liberties Union finds. 

Although Black people make up about 44 percent of the District’s population, they accounted for about 70 percent of police stops in 2022 and ’23. Only about 12 percent of stops involved White people, who make up about 39 percent of the city’s population.

The report from the ACLU’s D.C. chapter, which analyzed data released by the Metropolitan Police Department, also finds that the racially disproportionate police stops are an ineffective tactic for sniffing out illegal guns. According to the report, of the 68,244 stops in 2022, less than 1 percent resulted in a gun seizure. Of the 68,561 stops in 2023, 1.2 percent resulted in a gun seizure. 

“If the goal of stops is to reduce crime overall then I think we need to question whether this is the most effective practice to facilitate greater community safety,” ACLU-D.C. Policy Advocacy Director Scarlett Aldebot tells City Paper.

In a statement provided to NBC Washington, an MPD spokesperson disputes the ACLU’s conclusion about the effectiveness of the use of stop and frisk (which MPD refers to as a “protective pat down”). MPD says that only 4,471 of the nearly 69,000 stops included a frisk.

But a City Paper analysis of the department’s stop data found that while the number of police stops resulting in frisks (or pat downs) are relatively small compared to the number of overall stops, officers are much more likely to search Black people. More than 90 percent of frisks involve Black suspects.

MPD also points out that officers take action other than seizing firearms. For example, 58 percent of stops result in a ticket and 23 percent result in an arrest, according to the department’s data.

The ACLU’s recent analysis is its third report on stop-and-frisk data. MPD is required to release the information under D.C. law but for years refused to do so. The ACLU filed a lawsuit in 2021 to force the public release of the data.

This lawsuit compelled the department to begin publishing stop data on a dedicated page of its website as part of the District’s Open Data initiatives. Using this information, the ACLU published reports in 2020 and 2021 that outline officers’ excessive stopping of Black people in the District. The data for 2022 and 2023, released earlier this year, reveals that the trend of racial disparities in police stops has persisted.

In addition to the stop data, the ACLU’s recent report cites a 2023 cultural assessment of the department, where members of the community described their interactions with MPD officers. The assessment, conducted by the Police Executive Research Forum, cited residents from majority-Black wards 7 and 8 who said they experienced “an aggressive and disrespectful style of over-policing not seen in other wards.” 

Residents who participated in the cultural assessment also scored their level of trust in the police on a scale of 1 to 10. Those in the majority-White Second Police District gave the highest average score of 7.3; residents of the majority-Black Seventh District gave an average score of 5.0.

“What that [distrust] can create is a less safe District, where people don’t feel that they can go to the police to ask for help, or when they feel that their interaction with the police may be more harmful than helpful,” Aldebot says.

She adds that MPD has not yet contacted the ACLU to discuss its reports. But the department has been tied up in recent years with legal challenges related to the practice.

A 2020 lawsuit brought by the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund alleged that MPD officers’ use of stop and frisk largely violated people’s Fourth Amendment rights, and in many cases was carried out on the basis of race. The District paid $330,000 to settle the suit in June.

The 1968 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Terry v. Ohio determined that police officers can stop and search (or frisk) a person if they have a “reasonable suspicion” that the person is involved in criminal activity or carrying a weapon.

The practice has since been used by officers throughout the country, including infamously in New York City under Mayor Michael Bloomberg to target Black and Latine people. A judge ruled in 2013 that NYPD officers’ use of stop and frisk violated the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment, which protects against unreasonable search and seizure, and the Fourteenth Amendment, which guarantees equal protection under the law.

MPD, in its statement to NBC Washington, says 64 percent of guns recovered by the department in 2023 were obtained during police stops. MPD recovered 3,135 firearms in 2023, a slight decline from 2022, but that continues to mark an upward trend, according to MPD data.

Still, the number of gun recoveries appears to have little impact on curbing violence. The District saw an unprecedented increase in homicides last year, mostly from gun violence.

MPD even played a role in allowing some firearms to enter the community. A pandemic-era mayoral order made the department the only authorized firearm seller in the District for a short time. This led to the department finding an increasing number of firearms at crime scenes that they tracked back to themselves.

Metropolitan Police Department Officer Terence Sutton wiped away tears from his face as U.S. District Court Judge Paul Friedman sentenced him to more than five years in prison. Sutton was convicted in 2022 of second-degree murder in the death of 20-year-old Karon Hylton-Brown. 

Sutton was also convicted of conspiracy and obstruction of justice, as was his lieutenant, Andrew Zabavsky, for their attempts to cover up the fatal incident. Zabavsky was sentenced to four years following three days of hearings in U.S. District Court.

Both officers apologized for what happened during their respective courtroom statements Thursday afternoon. And both men, now convicted and sentenced, will continue to remain out of custody pending appeal, Friedman ruled.

Members of the media and others in the gallery were instructed to leave the courtroom after the hearing concluded as the officers stayed behind. Sutton’s attorney, Carmen Hernandez, later said the officers were escorted out of the building through a different exit for their safety.

The punishment comes nearly two years after a jury found the officers responsible for Hylton-Brown’s death. Their sentences are far below the amount of time federal prosecutors were seeking: 18 years for Sutton and 10 for Zabavsky. The maximum penalty for second-degree murder is 40 years; obstruction and conspiracy carry 20-year and five-year maximum sentences, respectively.

“I don’t think this man deserves a day in prison,” Hernandez said before Friedman handed down the sentence.

“You’re not going to get that wish, ” Friedman responded.

In the days leading up to the formal sentencing, Friedman said from the bench that he would not be following District sentencing guidelines in regard to the second-degree murder charge because he believed the punishment would be too harsh.

Hylton-Brown was killed in 2020 following an unauthorized police pursuit. Sutton, driving an unmarked MPD cruiser, chased Hylton-Brown as he rode a rented moped through the Brightwood Park neighborhood. With Sutton accelerating behind him, Hylton-Brown rode through an alley and onto Kennedy Street NW, where he was struck by an oncoming vehicle. He was later pronounced dead in a hospital.

Sutton’s initial report said he was chasing Hylton-Brown for riding a moped on the sidewalk and without a helmet, and prosecutors presented evidence at trial that he and Zabavsky attempted to cover up their actions during the pursuit by failing to immediately report the incident to superiors and initially denying they were involved in a pursuit at all.

A jury found Sutton guilty of second-degree murder on Dec. 21, 2022; he and Zabavsky were both convicted of obstruction and conspiracy. Sutton is the first MPD officer to be convicted of murder while on duty.

Sutton and Zabavsky have remained out of custody since their convictions as their attorneys filed appeals. As Friedman denied those motions, each officer began filing letters in support of leniency in sentencing.

Many of those who attended the three days’ worth of hearings this week were former and current MPD officers, several appearing in uniform and speaking on behalf of Sutton. They accused prosecutors of engaging in a politically motivated attack on law enforcement and following a trend of anti-police sentiment.

The Washington Post reported this week that Sutton and Zabavsky’s cases are examples of an increase in prosecutions of D.C. police officers for on-duty misconduct.

“It is my opinion that had this case not occurred on the heels of the George Floyd murder, these officers would not be facing decades of jail time,” former MPD Chief Peter Newsham said in court. Newsham is now the chief in Prince William County and was among the character witnesses speaking on behalf of Sutton this week.

MPD Lt. Jason Ross said in court that Sutton was a model officer who was caught up in the culture of fear currently pervading law enforcement. He asserted that police are afraid to properly do their jobs due to fear of unjust prosecution.

These character witnesses were joined in the courtroom gallery by Sutton’s friends and family, who offered various testaments to his character. Like the other witnesses, they expressed disbelief in the prosecution and the fact that the officers are facing such long sentences for ostensibly doing their jobs.

“The evidence uncovered that what had happened was second-degree murder—there is nothing unique about that,” said prosecutor Elizabeth Aloi.

Aloi objected to the witnesses’ characterization of the defendants as victims in the trial and declared that the only victim in this case is Karon Hylton-Brown.

Hylton-Brown’s mother, Karen Hylton, also attended the sentencing hearings and offered testimony.

“I’m your character witness!” Hylton shouted at Sutton when she testified earlier this week. “My baby is resting because of you.”

At one point during the trial in 2022, Judge Friedman barred Hylton from the courtroom after Sutton’s attorney, Michael Hannon, complained to the judge that her reactions could sway the jury. Hylton was later briefly detained for an outburst after the guilty verdict was read; she was later acquitted of charges related to the incident.

Hylton stayed outside the courtroom for most of the second day of sentencing hearings, stepping in and out periodically. At one point, she entered the room while Sutton’s sister was providing testimony via Zoom, but quickly became agitated and left shortly after.

Amaala Jones-Bey, Hylton-Brown’s girlfriend and the mother of his daughter, also attended the hearings. She was mostly quiet throughout the proceedings, but she did submit an impact statement outlining her views on the incident and the ensuing trial.

In her statement, Jones-Bey expressed that while Sutton and Zabavsky were directly involved in the incident that killed the father of her child, she believes that MPD’s systemic failures to both properly train its officers and follow up on incidents of officer misconduct carry the weight of the blame.

“It is a shame that after all the effort this court has put into reaching the verdicts … the District has already commenced to build a defensive wall protecting its officers from judicial review before Officers Sutton and Zabavsky are even sentenced,” Jones-Bey’s statement says.

Even with sentences for Sutton and Zabavsky handed down, the legal proceedings are far from over. The officers’ defense lawyers made it clear throughout the post-trial and sentence hearings that they are planning to appeal the case to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The video Catherine Baker posted on Reddit this week is very clear. You could even say crisp. 

It begins with a man in a blue shirt slipping through a hole in the rear fence of her Truxton Circle home (she says a driver crashed a stolen car into it last week). He holds a cigarette in his mouth and what appears to be a lunch box in his hand. 

From the lunch box the man pulls out what looks to many viewers to be a cucumber (it’s certainly green and phallic-shaped) and proceeds to mosey to the front of Baker’s silver Nissan parked in her driveway.

The man then appears to affix the—let’s just call it a cucumber—to the car’s grill, pulls down his pants, spits in his hand, and—there is really no other way to say this—sodomizes himself. Then he lights the cig.

At one point, a car drives through the alley, and the man pauses. When the coast is clear, he saunters back to the hole in the fence, extinguishes his heater, and continues … ahem.

When he’s done, the man returns the cucumber to his lunch box and exits the premises through the gap from which he came.

Baker says she noticed the traces of cucumber on her car when she returned home and then checked her security camera footage. Not exactly the fruit basket she was expecting.

She says she only moved to Truxton Circle two months ago. Between the busted fence and the Case of the Cucumber Sodomy, it’s been a wild ride. She posted the video online Monday, and it obviously went viral.

The Metropolitan Police Department took notice today and is currently searching for the cucumber culprit on suspicion of “lewd, indecent, or obscene acts.” 
MPD tells City Paper that the incident is under investigation and that it has no further updates at this time.

Two lawsuits in the U.S. District Court for D.C. are challenging the District’s assault weapons ban. One challenge comes from a familiar antagonist to D.C.’s gun regulations; the other is brought by a national organization that has received millions in funding from a nonprofit run by a former undercover D.C. cop.

Dale Sutherland is the self-anointed “Undercover Pastor” and once a senior pastor at the McLean Bible Church where Republican elites have worshiped. The former narcotics officer is also behind the nonprofit Constitutional Defense Fund, which has bankrolled the Firearms Policy Coalition’s litigation challenging gun restrictions in the U.S. In July, FPC filed suit in D.C.

These challenges are among hundreds of lawsuits attempting to loosen firearms restrictions in D.C. and throughout the country since the Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen. The court ruled in that case that gun laws must follow American “history and tradition,” and courts should no longer consider the government’s interest in boosting public safety. Legal experts have found this standard to be somewhat ambiguous, allowing for open interpretation and leading to an influx of challenges to gun laws.

Although FPC has seen some success, the Las Vegas-based organization recently lost its case challenging Maryland’s assault weapons ban. In an Aug. 6 ruling, a majority of a 15-judge panel for the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected FPC’s 2020 attempt to lift the state’s restrictions on these uniquely dangerous weapons.

Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III, writing for the majority, cites the Supreme Court’s landmark 2008 decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, which struck down the District’s three-decade ban on handguns. In the Heller decision, the Supreme Court ruled that the Second Amendment protects the right to have firearms in a home for self-defense. The high court acknowledged in Heller that restrictions on certain types of weapons may be allowed, including that “weapons that are most useful in military service—M16 rifles and the like—may be banned.”

In the opinion for the Maryland case, Wilkinson writes that “the assault weapons at issue fall outside the ambit of protection offered by the Second Amendment because, in essence, they are military-style weapons designed for sustained combat operations that are ill-suited and disproportionate to the need for self defense.”

While the ban in Maryland was enacted in 2013, after a gunman used an AR-15-style weapon to kill 20 school children and six teachers in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, D.C.’s ban on assault weapons has been on the books since 2008. The Firearms Control Act of 2008, passed by the D.C. Council to comply with the Heller ruling, created a new set of firearms restrictions, including banning the possession of assault weapons; 14 states also enforce assault weapons bans of some kind.

Assault weapons are defined differently in each of these jurisdictions; the District’s ban specifies certain types of semiautomatic rifles, pistols, and shotguns with various enhancements, such as a detachable magazine, revolving cylinder, or silencer.

In addition to FPC’s lawsuit in D.C., a similar case was filed in June by the Second Amendment Institute, a D.C.-based nonprofit, and its founder and president, Tyler Yzaguirre, a self-proclaimed “gun-rights policy expert” and author.

In 2016, Yzaguirre founded SAI to “educate, activate, and empower individuals to be effectively mobilized for the Second Amendment.” His book, titled Gun Rights 101: Firing Back Against Gun Control’s Biggest Lies, was published in 2021.

Yzaguirre also wrote a series of editorials for the Washington Examiner, primarily focused on Second Amendment issues. These included pieces advocating to arm schoolteachers, as well as a tirade against Bumble’s policy against profile pictures depicting firearms.

Yzaguirre’s legal team includes George L. Lyon Jr., a D.C.-based attorney who was a co-plaintiff in the original Heller case, and was involved in subsequent challenges to District gun laws passed in the wake of Heller, including a previous attempt to challenge the assault weapons ban. Lyon is also a member of SAI’s board of directors.

“It’s a slap in the face to our Founding Fathers and Constitution that Washington, D.C. politicians blanket ban firearms for votes,” Yzaguirre says via email of the District’s ban.

Council Chair Phil Mendelson was among the councilmembers who introduced the legislation implementing the ban more than 15 years ago. Today, he expresses skepticism over those who interpret the Second Amendment to allow for unfettered access to firearms.

Mendelson notes that the Constitution’s framers did not have weapons with automatic capabilities in mind while defining the right to bear arms. In his view, many gun-rights advocates are more focused on their interpretation of the Second Amendment than they are with public safety.

“I think where it stands today is wacky,” Mendelson says. “The weapons that people have today are very, very different from the firearms that existed in the 1780s. It’s a little bit like comparing my EV Bolt to a horse and buggy.”

While no fatal mass shootings involving assault weapons have occurred in D.C. since the ban was enacted, the perpetrator of the 2022 Edmund Burke School shooting in Van Ness was found in possession of assault weapons and described himself as “an AR-15 aficionado.”

Advocates for firearms restrictions have echoed Mendelson’s sentiments, citing the 10-year implementation of the federal assault weapons ban passed by Congress in 1994. Under the federal ban, studies found significant decreases in mass shootings and assault weapons recoveries.

The District has not responded in court to the claims in Yzaguirre’s or FPC’s lawsuit. 

Yzaguirre was also recently party to an unsuccessful suit against the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority that attempted to reverse the ban on carrying handguns on Metro trains and buses. And he is involved in yet another ongoing lawsuit, filed in 2023, that challenges the District’s ban on large-capacity magazines.

SAI funds at least some of its legal battles with donations from members. On its website, the organization encourages donors to pledge a minimum of $49 to the “Second Amendment Institute’s Legal Defense War Chest” in order to receive a “2A Legal Defense Challenge coin.” Those who donate $79 will receive a signed copy of Yzaguirre’s book, and a $249 donation comes with an American flag that was flown over George Washington’s home, Mount Vernon.

In the assault weapons lawsuit, Yzaguirre filed for a preliminary injunction in July to prevent the District from continuing to enforce the ban that has been in place for 16 years. U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta decided to stay the case, as well as the lawsuit brought by FPC, until a circuit panel rules in a separate case regarding the District’s ban on large-capacity magazines.

FPC has filed similar cases across the country seeking to reverse restrictions on gun ownership, including in New York and Illinois, which have similar bans to the District. On July 30, FPC won one of these lawsuits, when the presiding judge ruled that New Jersey’s ban on AR-15-style rifles is unconstitutional.

In his decision, U.S. District Court Judge Peter Sheridan suggested that legislators should do more to mitigate the dangers posed by firearms.

“It is hard to accept the Supreme Court’s pronouncements that certain firearms policy choices are ‘off the table’ when frequently, radical individuals possess and use these same firearms for evil purposes,” Sheridan writes.

A recent investigation published by the Trace and Mother Jones revealed that efforts by FPC and its affiliate, Firearms Policy Foundation, are funded in part by grants from Sutherland’s Constitutional Defense Fund. The gun-rights nonprofit reported spending more than $12 million to pay Cooper & Kirk, a D.C.-based law firm involved in many of FPC’s lawsuits, between 2020 and 2022. CDF has also awarded funds to Georgetown professor William English, whose questionable research has been used in FPC’s work throughout the country, including in the Bruen case. Justice Samuel Alito cited English’s survey in his concurring opinion.

Most of CDF’s funds were received through a conservative dark money fund called Donors Trust—obscuring the identities of its donors. Efforts to reach Sutherland were unsuccessful.

Despite the ongoing challenges to assault weapons bans across the country, the Supreme Court announced in early July that it would not weigh in on challenges to these restrictions.

In April, however, the Supreme Court decided to hear a case brought by FPC in Texas that will determine whether the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is able to regulate 3D-printed “ghost guns” as deadly weapons.

Ghost guns were briefly prohibited in D.C. after the Council passed emergency legislation in 2020 banning their registration and possession. Lyon yet again represented Dick Heller (of the Heller case) in a 2021 lawsuit challenging the ban. The suit influenced the Council to act to narrow the ban’s scope.

A 2023 report published by the ATF found that the ghost gun involvement in crime is an “emerging issue” as the number of ghost gun recoveries increased by 1,000 percent between 2016 and 2021.

George Washington University law professor Robert Cottrol tells City Paper that the District’s ban on assault weapons outlaws them “not on the [basis] that they are automatic weapons in some ways, but that these particular semiautomatic weapons have represented particular danger that allows the D.C. government to outlaw them.”

Cottrol says that the recent surge in firearms-related cases stem from a fundamental originalist belief that the Second Amendment unconditionally protects the right of American citizens to keep and bear arms.

The decision in Heller, Cottrol says, determined that sweeping firearms restrictions were unconstitutional on the basis of originalism, and the ensuing decisions in cases like Garland v. Cargill, in which the Supreme Court determined the legality of bump stocks, serve to narrow legislators’ ability to restrict firearm ownership. Bump stocks are attachments to semiautomatic weapons that enable them to fire with the capabilities of a fully automatic weapon.

As for the ongoing litigation, both challenges to the District’s assault weapons ban are on hold until the circuit court returns with a ruling in the case challenging bans on large-capacity magazines. That decision will set a precedent on District gun restrictions.

There was hardly a worse time for Las Gemelas to make its grand opening. The taqueria officially debuted in the Latin American food hall La Cosecha in March 2021. It was the height of the pandemic, and indoor dining was basically nonexistent.

But in May of that year, things started looking up. President Joe Biden made an impromptu visit to pick up some tacos for lunch and to promote his administration’s $28.6 billion Restaurant Revitalization Fund. Las Gemelas would receive the fund’s inaugural loan of nearly $680,000, intended to help the business supplement losses from the pandemic-induced dining restrictions.

“I want my staff to hear: These are my tacos,” the president said as he examined the carry-out bag.

But those early glimpses of optimism were relatively short-lived. On Jan. 5 of this year, co-owner Josh Phillips notified employees and investors that he and his wife and business partner, Kelly, had decided to close Las Gemelas and its sister restaurant next door, Destino.

“As you know, we’ve been struggling at Las Gemelas and Destino since pretty much the first day we opened,” Phillips wrote, according to a copy of the email announcement shared with City Paper. Phillips cited a slower-than-expected pace of development in the Union Market neighborhood and lack of foot traffic as reasons for the failed ventures.

“In reality, we likely should have closed these restaurants months ago,” he added.

In the six months since the closures, investors behind the two restaurants say Phillips has largely ignored their requests for documentation regarding the closures.

In email chains shared with City Paper, these investors—who put up at least $50,000 each, and in some cases more—express disappointment in the restaurants’ failure and offer sympathy to Phillips. They also ask him to provide details about how he plans to officially close the business and for documentation of the loss of their investment for tax filing purposes.

So far, investors who have spoken with City Paper say they’ve received sparse and vague responses from Phillips, leading some to threaten legal action. Compounding their frustration is that while they continue to wait for answers, Phillips appears to have shifted his focus to his other venture, Ghostburger. The burger shop began as a pop-up inside Las Gemelas, but expanded to its own brick-and-mortar in Shaw.

One investor, Hailey Snow, was incensed when she saw images posted to social media of Ghostburger’s employees using Las Gemelas’ old soft-serve ice cream machine. Phillips was supposed to sell the businesses’ assets (including, Snow says, the soft-serve machine) and use the money to repay investors, according to their agreement with Phillips.

“They were supposed to sell everything at [a] fair market price … recoup as much money as they can, and divide whatever that amount [among] the investors before doing anything,” Snow says. “They’re not doing that.”

The operating agreement for Las Gemelas and Destino says investors would be repaid via quarterly payments “if available” at an interest rate of 5 to 6 percent. It also required the company to pay investors 35 percent of the business’ profits.

Snow says she received only two payments in the nearly three years Las Gemelas was open, totaling about 11 percent of her initial stake in the business.

Garen Oskanian and another investor say they also received only two of the quarterly payments they were expecting while the restaurants were in operation.

“The last time I received an interest payment on my notes was for the period through June 1 2022,” Oskanian wrote to Phillips in an email in November. “That was 544 days ago and I’m a bit irritated about not having heard anything since – that is certainly not the spirit in which I entered into business with you. As a reminder interest on the notes is due and payable quarterly and without demand.”

Snow echoes Oskanian’s frustration, saying the lack of communication from Phillips after he announced the closure is in keeping with his engagement while the restaurants were open.

“There were supposed to be investor meetings, and we were supposed to receive quarterly updates and quarterly financials,” Snow says of the meetings that never happened. “We heard about the [federal] loan on Instagram.”

***

Josh and Kelly Phillips are the founders of Destination Unknown Restaurants, the group behind Las Gemelas, Destino, and Ghostburger, which replaced their shuttered Mexican restaurant, Espita. The couple’s struggles to keep their restaurants afloat aren’t surprising to anyone familiar with rising labor and food costs.

In an interview, Phillips acknowledges that he could have been more communicative with his investors. He says he understands their complaints, adding that if he were in their shoes, he would be mad at him, too. 

“I should have been more communicative,” he says. “The message at all points over the last year was, ‘I don’t know if I’m ever going to be able to pay you back.’ Instead, I morphed that message into, ‘I’m trying to find ways to pay you back.’”

According to Phillips, production delays and pandemic-era price hikes forced Las Gemelas and Destino to open later than expected. They operated in a deficit from day one, he says.

Ever-shifting development plans in the Union Market area and construction on 4th Street NE outside the restaurants drove away customers they counted on. Those factors cost the business about $2 million per year, he says.

In a December 2023 email to one investor, sent less than a month before he officially closed Las Gemelas, Phillips acknowledged that the business had struggled, but ultimately projected optimism. 

He explained in the email that they reduced labor costs, including cutting his own position, brought in a new executive chef with Michelin Star credentials, Vincent Badiee, and were banking on a Washington Post review to reverse the restaurants’ fortunes.

“We’re expecting a review from the Post fairly soon, as Tom Sietsema is a big fan of Vincent’s work at other restaurants,” Phillips wrote in the email to an investor. “He was apparently planning on ranking Vincent’s last restaurant in the top 3 of the dining guide, but found out days after he made that decision that Vincent was leaving there. If we get the review we expect from Tom based on the quality of Vincent’s food, we should be in a position to get current before we get the tax credit in late spring.”

The review never came, and adding to the downward spiral, Phillips tells City Paper, was that the firm that handled the restaurants’ accounting imploded around the same time, leaving the restaurateurs without a clear picture of their finances. All he knew was that Las Gemelas and Destino kept losing money.

It wasn’t until Phillips examined the company’s finances himself in February 2024 that he realized the businesses only had enough money to pay either its employees or its rent. Continuing service was not an option.

“While we put out a product that we were very proud of, unfortunately it wasn’t enough,” Phillips says.

He promised to send investors updates about the closing process, but again those messages never came. Phillips missed notification deadlines required by the business’ operating agreements, investors say, and failed to reply to most of their emails asking him about missing paperwork.

Without these records, including required K-1 tax documents meant to illustrate the financial health of a business, the investors are unable to report their losses and have no real picture of how much money they actually lost.

“We don’t expect to get any money back from this, but I should be able to write it off on my taxes,” Snow says.

Phillips acknowledges that Ghostburger is in fact using Las Gemelas’ old soft-serve ice cream machine. He says when the taqueria was still operating, the machine broke, but Las Gemelas couldn’t afford to repair it. So he moved it to Ghostburger, which did have the funds for the repair. He ended up replacing it with a churro machine at Las Gemelas before it closed. Still, it’s unclear if Phillip could have sold off the machine. He says his contract with La Cosecha entitles the landlords to the restaurants’ equipment in the event that he breaks the lease.

“If our investors really want me to sell that ice cream machine, I’m sure I can get like two grand for it,” says Phillips.

Phillips was the largest shareholder in the business, and says he took the biggest financial hit. He and his wife had to move in with his parents from their apartment in NoMa in order to pay off unforgiven government loans and back rent, he says.

“I don’t feel bad for myself that I owe a bunch of money,” Phillips says. “You know, I took on that risk … I’m going to have to live with that for a long time.”

Meanwhile, his investors are still waiting for answers and financial paperwork they say they’re owed under the investment agreements.

“We have not ruled out legal action,” Snow says. “That would be an additional cost to us that we would have to dump into this, but if we can’t get answers for literally anything, that might be our only avenue to receive the information that we are required.”

In the early morning of Dec. 30, 2023, 18-year-old D.C. resident Dekhota Evans was fatally shot in an alley on the 500 block of Florida Avenue NW. Evans’ murder was the District’s final homicide of 2023, marking the end to the deadliest year in D.C. in more than two decades.

D.C. ended the year as an outlier on violent crime among major U.S. cities. The 274 people killed last year was the most since 1997. Violent crime overall increased by nearly 40 percent, and carjackings skyrocketed. 

More than 85 percent of homicides in 2023 were instances of gun violence, whereas firearms accounted for only about 75 percent of homicides in 2002.

So far in 2024, the D.C. Council and Mayor Muriel Bowser’s primary legislative response has been an omnibus bill known as Secure DC. The legislation, shepherded by Ward 2 Councilmember Brooke Pinto, was welcome news to those who have demanded action from public officials and harsher penalties for perpetrators of crime; critics charge that it contributes more to the punishment of people who commit crimes than actually preventing them from happening in the first place.

In addition to increasing penalties for some firearm-related offenses, Secure DC also allows judges to more easily keep adults and some kids accused of violent crimes in custody before trial, as well as giving MPD officers the ability to designate and enforce “drug-free zones.”

But crime numbers this year have been trending downward in several major categories, even before Secure DC went into effect, and there is strong evidence to suggest that action from MPD and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for D.C., which prosecutes most felony crimes, has a larger impact on crime than legislation.

Still, several other bills aimed at addressing various factors that are known to contribute to crime are waiting for hearings.

Council Chair Phil Mendelson is pushing legislation, introduced late last year, known as the Evidence-Based Gun Violence Reduction and Prevention Act of 2023. The bill takes inspiration from a 2022 report released by the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council, that presented a strategic plan to reduce the rapidly growing threat of gun violence based on an analysis of programs enacted in similar cities to combat the same issue.

A prominent measure in the legislation allows MPD to hire and train civilian investigators for crimes that typically do not involve interaction with a suspect. These investigators will not carry firearms, nor will they have arrest powers.

“The evidence is that there are other jurisdictions that have civilianized in this way and have been successful,” Mendelson tells City Paper, citing cities such as Phoenix and Baltimore.

Mendelson’s bill would also authorize Bowser to refurbish or change the management of “criminally blighted” properties that can serve as hotbeds for criminal activity. In his introduction accompanying the bill, Mendelson cites multiple studies demonstrating that remediation helps reduce violence in areas surrounding formerly blighted buildings in Philadelphia and other urban areas. According to the D.C. Department of Buildings, there are currently 338 vacant blighted lots in the District, with the highest concentrations in wards 5 and 7.

The bill also lays the groundwork for more government assistance to group violence intervention in the District. GVI was first introduced in Boston as part of the city’s Operation Ceasefire program during the 1990s, which contributed to a decline in youth homicides of 63 percent in about five years.

Data compiled by the D.C. Policy Center suggests that, while crime among residents under the age of 18 has not returned to pre-pandemic levels, youth arrests have been steadily increasing since 2021.

To address this, Mendelson’s bill would require the mayor to authorize funds from the District’s Medicaid plan to provide community violence prevention services and supplement the work that other organizations are already doing. 

The bill does not specify what these services will entail, but Mendelson says he is looking to help fund the efforts of groups such as the Far Southeast Family Strengthening Collaborative, a resource center operating in Ward 8 providing violence intervention programs to residents, as well as helping those in need find housing or elderly care.

Nearby Baltimore saw a 33 percent drop in annual homicides last year, ending 2023 with its lowest total in nearly a decade. Mayor Brandon Scott suggests that this was in no small part thanks to the city’s Group Violence Reduction Strategy, a program piloted in January 2022.

Baltimore’s GVRS operates on the same principle of focused deterrence as Boston’s Operation Ceasefire, according to the program’s deputy director Terrence Nash.

Service providers in the GVRS program reach out to members of communities that are most affected by violence and assist them in securing “everything from relocation to education, job training, job placement, helping with driver’s license, and Social Security,” Nash says.

“By focusing on those who are driving the majority of violence in our city and getting them to step away from the life either through intensive case management and wraparound supports or enforcement, GVRS has had a clear impact as part of our broader, comprehensive public safety strategy,” Scott’s office says via email.

Bowser’s administration has attempted a similar approach: identifying people most at risk of coming into contact with gun violence, as perpetrators or victims, and providing them special access to city services. The initiative, known as “People of Promise,” targets people between the ages of 15 and 64, most of whom are between 18 and 35. It has received mixed reviews from those involved, and the Washington Post reported in 2022 about how the program was slow to get off the ground. Several individuals identified as targets of the program had died or were incarcerated.

Mendelson expects Pinto, who chairs the Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety, will hold a hearing on his bill later this year.

***

While homicide victims in 2023 spanned all age groups, the largest portion of victims and suspects in D.C. were between the ages of 30 and 39. More than 20 percent of all homicide victims last year were in this age group, even though those people account for about 11 percent of the District’s total population, according to the most recent U.S. Census data. 

Two infant deaths during the early months of the year marked the youngest homicide victims in D.C. In February, 5-month-old Kenneth Geo Walton was found unresponsive with blunt force trauma, and 7-month-old King Phelps was found in a similar state several weeks later. Both cases remain unresolved.

Eight juveniles were charged in homicide cases last year, according to data from MPD. The youngest defendant was only 13. Prosecutors charged three of those eight kids as adults. Homicide accounted for nearly all teenage fatalities in D.C. last year, when 106 kids were shot, 16 fatally. 

With this in mind, At-Large Councilmember Robert White announced a package of bills in February aimed at preventing youth violence by building up a youth mentorship program, expanding vocational training programs throughout D.C., and requiring more frequent reporting on truancy.

Bowser and Ward 6 Councilmember Charles Allen also introduced their own pieces of legislation aimed at addressing truancy. In 2023, 60 percent of D.C. high schoolers were chronically absent from school.

Bowser’s bill, the Utilizing Partnerships, Local Interventions for Truancy and Safety (UPLIFT) Amendment Act, takes an aggressive approach that starts with referring truant students to the Department of Human Services, then to the Child and Family Services Agency, and finally to Office of the Attorney General in the most extreme cases. The AG’s Office has generally preferred not to use prosecution in truancy cases, and evidence shows that such action would harm, rather than help, kids by pushing them further into the criminal justice system. Bowser’s bill would also require more action from the AG, including potential prosecution of a child’s parent or guardian.

The bill also takes a hard line against kids accused of crime. It would bar prosecutors from engaging in plea agreements with juveniles accused of violent crimes and ban diversion programs for kids accused of gun violations.

Allen’s bill takes a different approach. It designates schools with a student absentee rate of 20 percent or higher as priority zones for the Safe Passages, Safe Blocks program, designed to create a safe passageway for students to get to and from school. Other provisions in the bill provide funding for schools in the District to better track truancy and reach students with attendance issues.

White also introduced legislation that would require health care professionals in the District to learn more about gun violence prevention in order to have more effective conversations with at-risk patients about best practices and where they can access preventative resources.

***

Of all the District’s homicides in 2023, 21 were instances of domestic violence, according to data provided by MPD, up from 14 in 2022. Domestic violence homicides increased from eight in 2018 to 20 in 2021, according to the Domestic Violence Fatality Review Board’s most recent report.

Most perpetrators of these domestic homicides in 2023 were men, eight of whose victims were women. There were no domestic cases in which a woman was suspected of murdering a man.

MPD data suggests that nearly 90 percent of homicide defendants were men, while only about 10 percent were women. The gender divide in homicide victims is nearly identical. Of the cases in which a suspect was identified, nearly three-fourths included both male victims and perpetrators.

In line with national trends, a large percentage of homicides in the District remain unsolved. MPD’s data suggests that the department only closed a little more than half of the homicide cases it investigated in 2023—even fewer when taking only firearm-related homicides into account.

The brunt of D.C.’s homicides hit the Black community, especially residents living in wards 7 and 8, the hardest. Ward 7 accounted for 20 percent of the District’s total homicides, while Ward 8 accounted for 36 percent. The two areas east of the Anacostia River make up roughly only a quarter of D.C.’s total population.

Overall, more than 90 percent of homicide victims in D.C. last year were Black—accounting for 251 deaths. Roughly the same percentage of defendants in homicide cases were Black, while Black residents make up only a little over 40 percent of the District’s population.

An analysis by the National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform reported similar figures for fatal shootings from 2019 to 2020 and nonfatal shootings in 2020, which found that Black people were disproportionately affected by gun violence in D.C.

As various bills seeking to address crime and violence in D.C. are pending, homicides and overall violent crime are dropping this year. Homicides have decreased by 28 percent compared with this time last year, and violent crime is down 21 percent, according to data from MPD. Although Mendelson says Pinto has committed to holding a hearing on his bill, the fate of the others (from Allen, White, and Bowser) are uncertain. The two-year Council period expires at the end of 2024, after which all pending legislation will effectively die and must be reintroduced in the new period. Complicating the timelines further is this year’s delayed budget process, which will suck up just about all of local lawmakers’ time until mid-June, when they expect to give the spending plan final approval.

And while some politicos suggest this reversal in crime numbers is the result of recently passed legislation, namely Secure DC, others have noted that the decline can be more credibly attributed to the upswing in violent crime arrests by MPD paired with the higher rate of prosecution by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for D.C.