More than 260 people were slain in the Washington area last year. Here are a few of the killings that grabbed headlines in the region: » On March 30, a drive-by attack in Southeast D.C. left three people dead. Five men were indicted this month on charges stemming from a series of retaliatory shootings that culminated with the drive-by assault on a crowd gathered at South Capitol Street and Alabama Avenue to commemorate the death of 20-year-old Jordan Howe. Howe had been shot to death after falsely being accused of stealing a bracelet, police say.
Prosecutors say the gunmen killed 17-year-old Tavon Nelson while trying to steal his gun, then fired into the crowd of mourners outside a home, killing 18-year-old DaVaughn Boyd, 19-year-old William Jones and Brishell Jones, 16.
» On April 15, Shaw Middle School Principal Brian Betts was shot to death at his Silver Spring home during a robbery gone bad. Three of the four D.C. teenagers charged in the case have pleaded guilty, including Alante Saunders, who admitted to pulling the trigger after setting up a sex encounter online.
» On Oct. 25, American University professor Sue Ann Marcum was found beaten and strangled to death in her Bethesda home. A ward of D.C.’s juvenile-justice agency was apprehended driving her missing Jeep, but has not been charged in her death.
» On Nov. 29, a Fairfax County woman was charged with murder after she allegedly threw her 2-year-old granddaughter, Angelyn Ogdoc, over a walkway at the Tysons Corner Center.
