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Four people were killed in D.C. since Friday, including two men shot in the same incident in the Columbia Heights neighborhood, as the city continues to see increasing homicides with a new police chief on board.
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D.C. had recorded 138 homicides this year as of midnight Monday, an 18 percent increase over this time last year. The city is on track to record its deadliest year since 2003. July has been particularly violent, with 21 homicides in 24 days.
On July 17, Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) named Pamela A. Smith acting police chief while she awaits D.C. Council confirmation for the permanent role. She inherits a shrinking police force and a city facing increasing crime in almost every category.
No arrests have been made in the killings since Friday.
The latest fatal shooting occurred Saturday night in the 1400 block of Girard Street NW, in Columbia Heights. Police said the victims were found a block apart; each was shot shortly before 10 p.m. and pronounced dead on the scene.
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Police identified the victims as Luke Whitaker, 29, who had addresses in Northwest Washington and in Prince George’s County, Md., and Zion Hollingsworth-Hayes, 19, of Silver Spring, Md. Police did not comment on a possible motive; efforts to reach the victims’ families were not successful.
Earlier on Saturday, at about 6:45 a.m., police said Antoine Ealey, 43, of Southeast Washington, was found fatally stabbed in the 2300 block of L’Enfant Square SE, just off Pennsylvania Avenue SE, near Anacostia Park.
Police said he had been stabbed multiple times with a sharp object. Authorities did not describe a possible motive.
Ania Ealey, Antoine Ealey’s younger sister, said her brother was the kind of person who put everyone before himself, and worked hard to care for his siblings and his daughter.
10 killings in 5 days in D.C. leave an international trail of grief
“He was known as the golden child growing up,” Ealey, 35, said. “He was very hard on us. He wanted us to be better.”
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Ania Ealey said her brother had worked as a plumber, herbalist and a naturalist, but he struggled with depression.
“They last time I talked to him, he was very frail,” she said. “And the last time I talked to him, he was doing drugs to cope with whatever he was fighting. … But he never gave up. I feel like he was getting to the point where he was about to awaken to something powerful, but before that could happen, someone took his life.”
On Friday, police said Malik Haggans, 27, of Bowie, Md., was found fatally shot in the hallway of a residential building in the 600 block of 46th Place SE in the Benning Ridge neighborhood.
Police did not comment on a possible motive, and efforts to reach family members were not successful.
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