Crime & Safety

County Leaders Make Plea to Fight Crime Wave

Prince George's County Executive Rushern Baker says public support is crucial in deterring homicides.

Joined by a coalition of law and public safety leaders, Prince George’s County Executive Rushern L. Baker said today that community support is needed to help end violence in the county that has left 13 people dead since Jan. 1.

Speaking during a press conference at Prince George’s County police headquarters in Landover, Baker joined acting Police Chief Mark Magaw, Sheriff Melvin High and State's Attorney Angela Alsobrooks in giving an update of what the departments were doing to prevent more crimes from happening.

Baker called on the community, public safety offices and the state’s attorney to help fight back against homicides.

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“We are not going to make a good county great without all three coming together,” he said.  “I will do everything in my power to make this a safe community.”

The county has been struck with a string of homicides that began with the onset of the new year.  Magaw said initially that the spike in crime was not unusual, but as homicides began piling up, the department called in help from the FBI,  the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

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Magaw told reporters today that arrests have been made in four murders but the investigations overall have proven challenging because there were no “common threads” among the cases.

The homicides “seem to be random events [and] none of them seem to be related,” Magaw said. “With the help federal partners, we will investigate all these cases until they are closed.”

According to police, the three most recent arrests were made on Jan. 15, in connection with the murder of Ansel Whitelocke on Cypress Creek Drive in Chillum.  Demarko Brian Williams, 23, David Henry Wright, 28, and Verlyncia Lillian Coleman, 21, were arrested and charged with first degree murder.  Wright and Coleman lived in the 5700 block of Cypress Creek Drive; Williams lived in the 5400 block of 16th Avenue.

County police have been shuffling resources in an attempt to outpace the spike in crime.  Some 75 to 150 officers have been placed on the streets in affected areas,  and 13 detectives have been transferred to the Criminal Investigation Section and five to the Narcotics Enforcement Division.

Still, Baker said the additional officers cannot end the violence alone.

“This will not stop by [only] manpower,” he said.  “It takes prevention.”

Alsobrooks said there was a culture within the county that keeps people with information about crimes from coming forward.  She announced that her office would be launching campaigns to circumvent that attitude.

“People are uncomfortable with coming forward,” she said.  “There s a culture of 'no snitching'"

Baker said his top priorities would be to fund education and public safety.  But economic figures on how much it cost to call in additional support on the county, state and federal level still remain unclear, commented Magaw.

“It’s a very expensive and immense operation,” he said.


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