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D.C.'s oldest homicide victim of 2021 died in altercation stemming from dispute over apartment ...
Local Crime & Public Safety
D.C.’s oldest homicide victim of 2021 died in altercation stemming from dispute over apartment, police say
Luther Brooks, 76, was fatally injured Sept. 28, during an altercation at a residence in the 1300 block of Kalmia Road NW, D.C. police said. A suspect was charged with second-degree murder on Dec. 6. (Family photo)
By Peter Hermann
Today at 8:00 a.m. EST
The owner of the two-story brick house in D.C.’s Shepherd Park neighborhood was preparing to sell last fall, and she needed her basement tenant of six years to leave.
She said she had given more than eight months notice to 76-year-old Luther Edward Brooks Jr., and she felt he had been slow to seek accommodations elsewhere. Brooks’s family said he was looking into challenging the removal, which they felt was inappropriate during the coronavirus pandemic.
On the afternoon of Sept. 28, the owner, Valerie Mann, said she hired her best friend’s nephew to get the house ready for market, making repairs and painting. Mann said she also mentioned the basement tenant, telling her new handyman that Brooks had been “dragging his feet.”
Accounts differ on exactly what happened next, but Brooks and the 57-year-old handyman, Clifton A. Browne, became involved in a violent altercation. Police said it ended with Brooks — a Vietnam War veteran, carpenter and photo buff since he was 4 — lying comatose in the intensive care unit at George Washington University Hospital, with fractured ribs and head injuries.
{snip}
By Peter Hermann
Peter Hermann covers crime for The Washington Post. He previously worked for the Baltimore Sun for 22 years, covering a Baltimore suburb and then the Baltimore Police Department. Twitter https://twitter.com/phscoop
D.C.’s oldest homicide victim of 2021 died in altercation stemming from dispute over apartment, police say
Luther Brooks, 76, was fatally injured Sept. 28, during an altercation at a residence in the 1300 block of Kalmia Road NW, D.C. police said. A suspect was charged with second-degree murder on Dec. 6. (Family photo)
By Peter Hermann
Today at 8:00 a.m. EST
The owner of the two-story brick house in D.C.’s Shepherd Park neighborhood was preparing to sell last fall, and she needed her basement tenant of six years to leave.
She said she had given more than eight months notice to 76-year-old Luther Edward Brooks Jr., and she felt he had been slow to seek accommodations elsewhere. Brooks’s family said he was looking into challenging the removal, which they felt was inappropriate during the coronavirus pandemic.
On the afternoon of Sept. 28, the owner, Valerie Mann, said she hired her best friend’s nephew to get the house ready for market, making repairs and painting. Mann said she also mentioned the basement tenant, telling her new handyman that Brooks had been “dragging his feet.”
Accounts differ on exactly what happened next, but Brooks and the 57-year-old handyman, Clifton A. Browne, became involved in a violent altercation. Police said it ended with Brooks — a Vietnam War veteran, carpenter and photo buff since he was 4 — lying comatose in the intensive care unit at George Washington University Hospital, with fractured ribs and head injuries.
{snip}
By Peter Hermann
Peter Hermann covers crime for The Washington Post. He previously worked for the Baltimore Sun for 22 years, covering a Baltimore suburb and then the Baltimore Police Department. Twitter https://twitter.com/phscoop