Federal agents are embedding with homicide investigators in Prince George’s County starting this week in a rare move as authorities scramble to react to a string of 13 killings that have occurred already in 2011. “It is very unusual for us to bring in agents and embed them in our homicide division,” said police spokesman Maj. Andy Ellis. “I can’t remember us doing that since probably the mid-to-late ’90s.”
The county has been rocked by news of a homicide spike since New Year’s Day. The county’s 13 killings exceed the 12 U.S. military deaths that have occurred this year in Afghanistan as of Friday morning.
Police now say there have only been 12 homicides this year, as one death is considered justifiable. A 30-year-old was shot and killed Tuesday by a homeowner while trying to break into the owner’s New Carrollton residence. “The long and short of it is intent,” Cpl. Evan Baxter explained.
The federal agents will come from the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, though Ellis said he did not know how many would join county detectives.
County police have enlisted other area law enforcement agencies to help: On Wednesday night, officers from the Maryland State Police, the Prince George’s County Sheriff’s Department, Mount Rainier Police Department and Bladensburg Police Department joined county police to saturate areas of the county where some of the murders have taken place.
The first victim of the year was a man stabbed to death in Chillum.
Police say most of the county’s victims — including a University of Maryland student slain this week — do not appear to be random, and instead were likely killed because of involvement in drugs, gangs or personal disputes.
The latest victim announced by police was Alitha Mae Jenkins, 51, of Landover, whose death was ruled a homicide by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore on Wednesday. She was found dead Friday in a grassy area along a Capitol Heights roadside, Ellis said.
“We were waiting for toxicology results to come back because we wanted to rule out the possibility of an overdose,” Ellis explained.
He declined to reveal how authorities think she died, though admitted there were “no obvious signs of trauma when we first found her.”
Police believe she was unemployed, and court records show Jenkins was convicted on theft and prostitution charges in 1998. A warrant had been out for her arrest in 2008 for failing to appear in court on drug charges.
“She did not live in the area where her body was found, but she was known to frequent that area,” Ellis said.
