This is the second story in a series about murders in Washington, D.C. Read the rest here: Part 1
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Michael Lofton was murdered for breaking up a dice game. His death set off a cycle of retaliation, yet Lofton’s killer was never arrested, his older brother, Larry McMichael, told Fox News.
“God be told, I lost him when he was 18,” McMichael said. “He broke the crap game up and they killed him.”
The next year, McMichael’s close friend was murdered for inexplicable jealousy.
But those incidents aren’t unusual even though they happened over 20 years ago. Murders in the nation’s capital most frequently stem from a petty dispute or insult, according to criminologists and local officials.
Larry McMichael, a drug dealer-turned youth mentor, describes his pain after his brother was murdered.
Members of communities with low police trust – regardless of whether that’s due to law enforcement misconduct or otherwise – are less likely to turn to the police and more likely to carry firearms illegally, criminologists said.
“There is an expectation among those young men that you don’t go to the police, that you resolve it amongst yourselves,” Abt told Fox News.
“So, these young men often – if someone hurts them or someone they care about – they take the law into their own hands,” he told Fox News. “Those types of homicides are particularly hard to solve.”
Isabelle McDonnell contributed to this report.
Ethan Barton is an editor for Digital Originals. You can reach him at ethan.barton@fox.com and follow him on Twitter at @ethanrbarton.
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