Murders this Week: 2
Murders this Year: 144

Three recent homicide victims have been identified. The man shot in the face in Cherry Hill on Aug. 28 was Dewayne Jones, a 23-year-old African-American man. The woman beaten to death in her home in the 900 block of Leadenhall Street on Sept. 1 was Janice Drayton, a 51-year-old African-American woman. And the baby who died on Aug. 8 after being found unresponsive and covered in vomit in his home in the 5600 block of Woodmont Avenue was Davon Booth Jr., a 1-year-old African-American male.

Wednesday, Sept. 7

8:30 a.m. Police were called to a home in the 2700 block of Riggs Avenue for a possible abduction. When they arrived they were met by the mother of Dalyire McFadden, an African-American male who had his first birthday two days earlier. There was blood in McFadden’s bedroom that trailed down to the basement. The baby’s body was in the basement. According to The Baltimore Sun, he was wrapped in a deflated air mattress. He had been stabbed in the neck and was pronounced dead at a city hospital at 10 a.m. McFadden’s father, Hari Close III, a 25-year-old African-American man, was arrested and charged with the child’s murder. The Sun reports that Close, who did not live with McFadden, entered the locked house during the night and got into bed with McFadden’s mother. In the morning, Close left and the mother walked her 6-year-old son to school, leaving McFadden alone in the house. When she returned, the baby was gone. Close allegedly admitted to finding the baby with a bloody neck, wrapping the baby up, putting him in the basement, and failing to call 911 but not to killing the child. He also allegedly disposed of the baby’s bloody clothes and sheets in a box in an abandoned house a few blocks from the home. Police also found a bloody knife in the box. McFadden is the third small child murdered in the last 30 days.

Thursday, Sept. 8

4:30 p.m. Marcus Hopkins, a 21-year-old African-American man, was discovered shot several times in the rear of the 500 block of East 43rd Street just off York Road. One of the bullets hit his brain stem. He was taken to an area hospital and kept alive on life support until 1:45 a.m. on Sept. 9.

Update

Jermaine Johnson, a 30-year-old African-American man, was sentenced to two life sentences plus an additional 20 years for the murders of Gerry Martin (police initially listed the name as “Gary”), an 18-year-old African-American man, and Darvin Jones, a 19-year-old African-American man. A group of people were standing in the 200 block of North Conkling Street on July 26, 2009. Johnson and another person, who has not been identified, went up to the group and started shooting. The gunmen targeted and shot Martin and Jones as they tried to run away, according to the State’s Attorney’s Office.

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