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       Five people in the District were killed in homicides in a three-day span, including four over the weekend, in a continuing surge of violence that elected officials have deemed a crisis in the nation’s capital.

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       The spate of killings pushed the city’s homicide count to at least 239 so far this year — 58 more people than were slain in the same period last year. With six weeks remaining in 2023, the toll so far is the largest in any calendar year in two decades.

       “We are just going to keep pushing on all fronts,” D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) said at a news conference Friday, when asked what city officials can do to curb the rising violence.

       The killings began in the pre-dawn Saturday and continued through Sunday evening. One person was stabbed to death in Northwest in what police described as a domestic incident. Another was fatally shot in Southeast. A man was killed in a double shooting inside a residence in Northeast. And another man was found with gunshot wounds inside a car in Southeast.

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       The violence did not stop when the weekend ended. About 11:30 a.m. Monday, police said, a man was fatally shot in the 400 block of Ridge Road SE, in the Fort Dupont area.

       Carlos Heraud, assistant chief of the investigative services bureau, said the five people were each killed in targeted attacks but the motives remain largely unknown. In at least two of the incidents, Heraud said the victim and suspect appeared to know each other and interacted before the killing. He said the separate homicides did not seem to be related.

       “There isn’t any one thing that is pushing these homicides,” he said. “They really ran the gamut this weekend.”

       D.C. surpasses 200 homicides for the year at earliest point since 1997

       The first person killed this weekend was James Deale, 28, of Northeast. He was fatally shot about 3:08 a.m. Saturday in the 3500 block of Stanton Road SE, near the District’s border with Prince George’s County, Md., police said.

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       About 2:45 a.m. Sunday, police said, they responded to calls for a shooting and a vehicle fire in the 1500 block of Benning Road NE. Officers found Kelvin Hamlett, 41, of Southeast, in the driver’s seat of a maroon Chevrolet Trailblazer, with a gunshot wound to his left side, according to charging documents. He died at the scene.

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       John Dickens II, 46, who police said has no fixed address, was charged with second-degree murder in Hamlett’s death. Court records do not indicate whether he has an attorney.

       Police said they did not find a firearm in Hamlett’s vehicle. In charging documents, a detective described security footage that police said shows Dickens walking to the driver’s side of the Trailblazer.

       About 10:06 p.m. Sunday, there was another shooting, in the 1500 block of F Street NE. Police said they found two men with gunshot wounds inside a residence. One was transported to a hospital, where he is in critical condition, police said Monday. The other, Leon Carter, 31, of Northeast, died at the scene, police said.

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       By Monday evening, police had not identified a person stabbed to death Sunday morning in the 311 block of 16th Street NW.

       D.C. Police Chief Pamela A. Smith has published a public safety plan that she has said is designed to slow the pace of killings. Her initiatives include data-driven approaches to deploying officers, which Smith said allows her to shift officer assignments based on real-time risk of violent crime in certain neighborhoods.

       The pace of homicides slowed in September and October after a brutal summer, when rashes of violence in July and August left more than 60 people dead. October saw the fewest fatalities in a single month this year, with 13 people slain, according to police data. So far this month, at least 10 people have been killed.

       Before Smith’s confirmation last week by the D.C. Council, members who largely praised her said they wanted to see a high case closure rate for homicides. As of Nov. 6, detectives had closed 42 percent of open homicide cases. The closure rate at the end of each calendar year dating back to least 2007 has been above 62 percent, according to police data.

       Alice Crites and Peter Hermann contributed to this report.

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