WASHINGTON – The District’s first confirmed killing of 2016 occurred when a man was shot and later succumbed to his injuries in the Northeast section of the city Friday night.
Police said Joseph Andre Robinson, 31, of Southeast, was fatally shot.
Four other none-fatal shootings happened in the same evening, all in Northeast D.C.
The killing had followed eight straight days of quiet in the District since the start of the new year. There were a total of of 162 people killed in 2015 –- a 54 percent increase over the year before.
Violent crime, however, has not slowed a bit.
As of Jan. 8, these crimes are already up roughly 21 percent from last year, with four times as many sex abuse cases so far in 2015. Robberies with or without guns are also up year-over-year, as are assaults with deadly weapons.
It’s better news on the property crime front, which is down roughly 10 percent as a whole with every category seeing a decrease. That drop lowers the overall crime rate by about five percent compared to last year.
This weekend, however, got off to a violent start. The Metropolitan Police Department investigated five shooting incidents from Friday into Saturday
Aside from Friday’s killing, which police say occurred in the 3700 block of Hayes Street NE at around 9:30 p.m, another man was shot in the 2400 block of Martin Luther King Jr Avenue SE at around 8:40 p.m. on Friday. He was found breathing and conscious by police.
The third incident occurred about a half hour later in the 1700 block of East Capitol Street NE. Police have confirmed that two juvenile females were shot, but say there could have been additional victims. Everyone involved was conscious and breathing when police arrived.
The fourth shooting happened around 11:30 p.m. Friday in the 2500 block of Pomeroy Road SE. Police say a man was found shot, and was breathing and conscious.
The fifth incident is either a single incident or two separate incidents that happened near each other around roughly the same time, D.C. police say. Two men were shot and found in two different locations in the 3600 block of Hayes Street NE shortly after midnight Saturday. Both men were conscious and breathing when police arrived on the scene.
