The Washington region has seen several workplace homicides in recent months, at sites that range from a Department of Public Works garbage facility to an upscale yoga store. Such workplace killings are on the rise on the area, even as cases have dropped nationwide.
Here are a few local cases:
» In October, one sanitation worker was fatally shot and another was wounded after a gunman opened fire at a Northeast Washington garbage collection facility. A man dressed in a dark blue DPW jumpsuit entered the facility gates and began shooting, killing 51-year-old Larry Hutchins, police said. No one has been arrested.
» In November, Jacobo Vazquez was shot to death at the commercial cleaning company where he worked and his body was later found in a box by a Maryland highway. Court records say Marvin Palencia, a former employee at the business, killed him because Vazquez was apparently having an affair with Palencia’s wife.
» On New Year’s Day, an engineer at Suburban Hospital allegedly stabbed his supervisor to death in the Bethesda hospital’s basement boiler room. Police say Keith D. Little stabbed Roosevelt Brockington Jr. more than 70 times over a poor performance review.
» In March, police say Brittany Norwood, an employee at the Lululemon Athletica in Bethesda, killed a co-worker, then tied herself up and pretended a robbery had occurred. Store managers had asked victim Jayna Murray to look in Norwood’s purse for possible stolen merchandise.
» Last week, a former worker at an Alexandria barber shop allegedly fatally shot one employee and injured another. Police say Hung T. Nguyen had past disputes with a worker at the shop.
