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Police have arrested a 35-year-old suspect charged with fatally shooting a man in April in the Fairlawn neighborhood of Southeast Washington, according to authorities and court documents.
Darrell Hinkle, of Southeast, was charged with first-degree murder while armed in the April 21 killing of Dajuan Blakney, 32, as he sat on steps outside an apartment building in the 1500 block of 19th Street SE.
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Police said in an arrest warrant filed in D.C. Superior Court that the two men knew each other. The warrant quotes witnesses saying the men were engaged in a dispute but did not elaborate. Police said they arrested Hinkle on Saturday.
A D.C. Superior Court judge on Monday ordered Hinkle detained and set a hearing for Dec. 14. His attorney declined to comment.
In the warrant, police said surveillance video shows a man with a rifle, whom authorities later identified as Hinkle, approaching Blakney shortly after midnight.
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Police said the video shows the two men appearing to exchange words and then shows the gunman lifting the rifle while walking toward Blakney. Police said Blakney started to stand as the gunman fired, striking the victim 1o times. Blakney died at the scene, police said.
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According to the warrant, police said casings from bullets fired at Blakney from a .223-caliber rifle appear to be linked to two other shooting scenes in the District this year. Both of those shootings occurred during a violent week in July in which 10 people were killed in five days. It was a deadly spate of violence in a city experiencing a 35 percent increase in killings over the same period last year.
One of those shootings occurred July 1 in the 1500 block of Good Hope Road SE in Anacostia, and claimed the life of Frank Maddox, 27, of Capitol Heights, Md. No arrest has been made in that case. Police said bullet casings from the rifle used in Blakney’s shooting were found at the Good Hope Road scene.
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Police said in the warrant that casings from that same rifle were also found at a fatal shooting on July 5 in the 1200 block of Valley Avenue SE. Alison Cienfuegos-Vasquez, a 21-year-old community college student, was killed. Her mother said at the time she believed the shooting was over a domestic dispute.
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Police said in the warrant that neither of the two men captured on video at the scene of Cienfuegos-Vasquez’s shooting matches Hinkle’s description.
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