Stabbing puts killings at 56, close to ‘07 at this time

The death of a 28-year-old Northwest man Tuesday puts the city’s homicide count at 56, compared with 58 at this time last year.

Police said a domestic dispute turned violent resulting in the death of Calvin Jordan, who was found with an apparent stab wound in the abdomen in a residence in the 2200 block of 12th Street Northwest.

Metropolitan Police spokesman Officer James Israel yesterday could not confirm the details of the incident, citing an ongoing investigation.

D.C. Council member Jim Graham wrote on an online message board that Mr. Jordan, a resident of the block where he was found, was stabbed as he fought with an unidentified man over a woman the two were involved with.

The latest killing narrows the gap between this year’s and last year’s homicide incidents as Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier tries to rebound from two spates of violence last month that contributed to 18 killings in April, up from 13 last year. As of April 26, when the year-to-date count reached 50, homicides were occurring at the same pace as last year.

The stabbing was the third homicide this year in the 3rd Police District, which has seen a decline in killings from this time last year when the count was eight, according to police.

The department has seen double-digit declines this year to date in six major categories of crime including armed robbery, assaults with a deadly weapon and shootings, which have brought violent crime down 7 percent.

Still, the department has not been able to cap burglary and strong-arm robbery, which are up 18 percent and 9 percent, respectively.

Officials say those types of crimes stem from poor economic conditions.

Chief Lanier last month tripled the number of officers on patrol in response to 10 killings in two weeks.

The spike in crime fueled criticism of Chief Lanier’s signature All Hands on Deck initiative, the first phase of which began May 2, about a week after the number of patrol officers was increased.

Chief Lanier said the program, during which the entire 4,000-officer department works patrols shifts over five three-day periods, shows the force of the department while it seeks to reach it’s goal of 4,200 sworn officers by October next year.

Police union officials have attacked the strategy, saying that the department has to respond to crime trends as they happen rather than try to speculate when spikes will happen.

“I think we’ve started to realize that Chief Lanier has no plans to deal with this,” said Kristopher Baumann, who heads the union labor committee for D.C. police. “They’re still unable to grasp that the plan doesn’t work.”