Three people have died in the span of just two weeks in the Central Detention Facility (CDF), a.k.a. the D.C. Jail, in America’s crime-ridden capital. Takoma Park resident Sheena Weatherspoon, 39, is the most recent of the deceased, confirmed dead after being found unresponsive in her cell at 1:05 PM on May 11 by the Department of Corrections.
Another woman, 22-year-old Dominique Brown, was the first of the three inmates to pass away over the deadly two-week period. Sincere Howard, a 23-year-old male, was the second.
A fourth D.C. Jail inmate, 35-year-old Anthony McDonald, died in custody in February, and 47-year-old Roy Tatum died in custody in January, for five D.C. Jail deaths so far in 2024.
The five deaths are under investigation by the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) and the Office of Investigative Services at the Department of Corrections, with the chief medical examiner yet to confirm the causes of death as of the time of publication.
D.C. is governed by a Democrat mayor, Muriel Bowser, and a City Council comprised exclusively of Democrats and former Democrats sitting as independents. It is struggling to address crime — murders rose sharply from 203 in 2022 to 274 in 2023. It is also suffering a surge in carjackings, with Democratic Congressman Enrique ‘Henry’ Cuellar (TX) being among those targeted last year.
This year has seen a former Donald Trump administration member, Mike Gill, shot in the head and killed during a February carjacking spree. A police captain was also shot in the head, just five blocks from his station, during a May carjacking attempt.
Even the Biden family has not been immune from the crime wave, with Secret Service agents forced to open fire on assailants attempting to break into an SUV carrying Joe Biden’s daughter Naomi in November.