WASHINGTON — Not long after the Metropolitan Police Department announced they reached their 200th homicide of 2022, a man was shot and killed in the Columbia Heights neighborhood marking number 202 for the District.
D.C. police responded to the area of 15th Street Northwest, by Meridian Park and not far from the Embassy of Ecuador, around 2:25 a.m. on Friday, after receiving a report of gunshot sounds. Once at the scene, officers found a man suffering from gunshot wounds.
DC Fire and Emergency Medical Services responded to the location and found the man, later identified as 21-year-old Jhonatan Guzman Hernandez, of Upper Marlboro, Maryland, showing no signs of life. Hernandez was pronounced dead at the scene, according to police, and was taken to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
As of Dec. 30, there has been 202 recorded homicides across the District. In 2021, there were a total of 226 homicides for the whole year, according to D.C. Police. This means homicides are down by around 11% with only one full day left in the year.
The Metropolitan Police Department currently offers a reward of up to $25,000 to anyone that provides information which leads to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for each homicide committed in the District of Columbia. Anyone with information about this case is asked to call the police at 202-727-9099. Additionally, anonymous information may be submitted to the department’s TEXT TIP LINE by sending a text message to 50411.