More than ten percent of the new homicides in Washington, D.C., this year are being tied to criminals with past homicide charges and who have been recently released from D.C. jails.
“Multiple of our offenders involved in homicide have previous homicide charges and are recently back in the community,” D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier said at a Thursday news conference.
D.C. authorities report that 10 of the 91 homicides in the city have been attributed to suspects who have a history of being charged with murder.
Fifty-five of those cases are still open and have not been solved.
D.C. police claim that, despite a heightened presence in the community, residents are killing each other in record numbers in petty arguments.
“In some of the violence we’ve seen recently, it has just been dispute resolution with a gun. It’s that simple,” the chief said.
About four murders a week have occurred in the district, with murder rates up 20 percent over 2014.
During the press conference, the department announced several initiatives but claimed a flood of guns with “high capacity magazines” were making it hard to stay ahead of the crime.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.
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