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Murders this Week: 4
Murders this Year: 191

Tuesday, Nov. 3

6 p.m. Police discovered a dark-gray car that had been in an accident in the 1300 block of West Fayette Street by Franklin Square. Joseph Taylor, a 28-year-old African-American man, was inside the car, shot in the head. He died at an area hospital that night.

9:30 p.m. Another man was found shot in the head in a car that night. Allen Johnson, a 31-year-old African-American man, was found seated in the driver's seat of a green SUV in the 2400 block of Pickering Drive near the Perring Parkway Shopping Center. He died at a local hospital less than an hour later.

Saturday, Nov. 7

3:04 p.m. Johnnie Hawkins, a 40-year-old African-American man, was found inside the garage of a car wash in the 100 block of South Payson Street. He had been shot in the head. He died at an area hospital at 7:50 a.m. the next day. This is the sixth murder in the Carrollton Ridge neighborhood this year.

Sunday, Nov. 8

12:58 a.m. Charles Williams, a 25-year-old African-American man, was standing in front of an apartment building on West 20th Street between Charles Street and Maryland Avenue in the "Little Korea" area of Charles North. Two men came up to Williams. One of the men grabbed Williams and shot him several times. The two men then ran south on Maryland toward North Avenue. Williams was left lying in the street. He died at a local hospital at 1:43 a.m.

Updates

The person stabbed to death on Oct. 25 in the 1500 block of Montpelier Street has been identified by police as Darren Green, a 24-year-old African-American male.

Two people have been arrested in connection with the Oct. 30 murder of Dennis Cornish Jr., a 30-year-old African-American man. Kevin Brailford, a 42-year-old African-American man, and Koumba Yasin, a 39-year-old African-American woman, were arrested the day of the stabbing. According to police, Brailford and Yasin are a couple and live in the same apartment building as Cornish. Brailford and Cornish allegedly got into a fight and he stabbed Cornish in the chest. Yasin allegedly tried to get rid of the knife.

On Oct. 30, Dominic Brown, a 29-year-old African-American man, was found guilty of murdering one man and trying to kill another. Sean Henderson, a 35-year-old African-American man, and some friends were inside a bar in the 3200 block of Belair Road on May 4, 2008. Henderson went outside and talked to two women, one of whom was the mother of Brown's son. Brown came up and started yelling and then shot Henderson in the back and chest. Another man was shot in the knee by a stray bullet while leaving the bar, but survived.

Joseph Barnes (aka Joseph Bond), a 36-year-old African-American man, was sentenced to 18 years in prison for assaulting Nicole Sesker, a 39-year-old African-American woman. Sesker, who was the stepdaughter of former police commissioner Leonard Hamm and the subject of previous City Paper stories ("Along Came a Spiral," March 31, 2004, and April 7, 2004; "Dual Natures," Mobtown Beat, July 30, 2008), was found dead in an alley behind the 3500 block of West Garrison Avenue on June 27, 2008. She had been asphyxiated. Barnes entered a plea in which he did not admit to killing Sesker, but acknowledged that the case was strong enough to convict him. The first-degree murder charge was dropped and Barnes received his sentence for assault.

On Nov. 5, Barry Roberts, a 23-year-old African-American man, was sentenced to 45 years in prison for a shooting that left Darius Bruton, an 18-year-old African-American man, dead. Bruton (whose name was given by police at the time as Burton) and another man got into an argument with Roberts. When Roberts pulled out a gun, Bruton and the other man tried to run away, but Roberts shot Bruton in the head. He also shot at the other man, but didn't hit him. Roberts was arrested in Norfolk, Va., while trying to buy a gun.

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