Homicides throughout Anne Arundel Countyreached their lowest number in nearly a decade in 2024, while suspects have been identified or charged in nine of the 13 cases.

The latest count represents a sharp decrease from the 21 homicides reported in 2023, a number bolstered in part by a mass shooting in Annapolis that left three people dead and three others injured.

With the exception of two stabbings, the vast majority of homicide cases last year were the result of gun violence — a trend consistent with statewide statistics. Of the 1,625 Maryland homicides catalogued by the FBI since 2019, approximately 76% involved a firearm.

Both the Annapolis and Anne Arundel County police departments, the two biggest law enforcement agencies in the county, investigated high-profile homicides last year.

In March, the body of a Baltimore man reportedly kidnapped was found in a wooded area near Wiley H. Bates Middle School in Annapolis. Then, in August, an alleged double stabbing in Edgewater revealed the contentious divorce between a healthcare executive and his wife, and a legal battle involving millions of dollars in assets and the custody of their 10-year-old daughter.

Another killing that captured the public interest took place in Baltimore but involved a woman from Anne Arundel County.

Cameran Holt of Pasadena died in a hospital Oct. 27, 11 days after she was paralyzed by an errant bullet in the city’s Federal Hill neighborhood. About a month later, Baltimore Police arrested three people in the suspected shootout, something the 19-year-old was uninvolved with, and which left another man injured.

Within county limits, most of the reported killings last year have led to arrests or police naming people of interest. And of the three homicides that took place in Annapolis, charges have been filed in two cases, while city detectives said a suspect in one of them was being looked at in the third.

Though authorities identified two suspects in multiple killings this year, none of last year’s homicides involved more than one victim.

The first homicide of 2024 took place March 4 in Brooklyn, when Tyrese Malik Williams was shot in the back. Police said the killing took place outside the 20-year-old victim’s home and by the end of the day, authorities had charged two people with his murder.

Baltimore teenagers Dabron Johnson and Decouisey Wilson were among five people detained following a search by Anne Arundel police and a helicopter unit from the Baltimore Police Department. Johnson and Wilson were the only ones charged in Williams’ killing, however, and both are scheduled for trials in the first half of 2025.

By March 4, 2023, a year before Williams’ death, five people had been killed between Anne Arundel County and Annapolis. That being said, two other homicide cases in the region took place by the end of the month, both on the same day.

On the morning of March 28, Annapolis Police officers found the body of David Winchester Jr. in the woods near Wiley H. Bates Middle School. The perpetrators, Baltimore Police said, broke into Winchester’s mother’s home and demanded money. They then brought the 47-year-old man to Annapolis and shot him in the middle school parking lot. Winchester was a father of 10 and grandfather of six.

Three people — Jamar Fincher, Monae Fincher, and Marquis Mayo, all from Baltimore — were arrested and charged days later. Their cases are making their way through the Anne Arundel County Circuit Court.

Several hours later, county police found Tommy Lee Williams Jr., a 43-year-old entertainer from Prince George’s County who performed as DJ Tommy Stylez, dead inside a vehicle in Crofton. No suspects have been identified in the case.

Keion McKinney was shot and killed June 14 in the backyard of a Severn townhome. Known as Rico, the 34-year-old was pronounced dead at the scene.

Three days later, Isaiah Oludayo Olugbemi was shot in an apartment community in Odenton. Alive when first responders arrived, the 27-year-old boxer soon died at a hospital. Nicholas Giroux, 36, who lived in the area, was arrested the next day and later confessed to the shooting, police said, leading investigators to the handgun he allegedly used.

On June 29, Joshua Holland was shot and dumped from a car in Brooklyn; the vehicle was found about a mile away. The 34-year-old Curtis Bay resident was pronounced dead at a Baltimore hospital.

Months later, in September, police charged Baltimore teenager Deondre Sharps with not only Holland’s murder, but McKinney’s as well. Sharps, 19, is scheduled for trial in both cases in the second half of this year.

Two days later, another homicide took place less two blocks away from Holland’s. Jasmen Wilkerson was stabbed July 1 after an argument with an unidentified man. A 47-year-old mother known as Big Country, Wilkerson was taken to a shock trauma center in Baltimore, where she later died. Though authorities believe Wilkerson knew her killer, no suspect has not been identified in the case.

The next killing in Anne Arundel County was also a stabbing, when Nancianne Houston and her estranged husband, Dr. James Houston, were found in an apartment along the South River in a pool of blood. Nancianne Houston was pronounced dead at the scene. James Houston, a healthcare executive, suffered serious injuries and survived after being put in an induced coma. He faces first- and second-degree murder and assault charges.

Before the double stabbing, the couple had been separated for more than a year. Nancianne Houston’s family, in civil cases, has maintained her death was financially motivated. Developments in the civil suits, a wrongful death case and battles over custody and the victim’s estate, have gone against the doctor to this point and phone call recordings from the jail where he is being held revealed a plan by James Houston to move his assets to an untraceable, overseas account before his in-laws have “a chance to get it.

Anne Arundel County State’s Attorney Anne Colt Leitess has taken the rare step of prosecuting the criminal case herself. Houston’s next court date has not yet been scheduled, according to the Maryland Judiciary.

The next two homicides of 2024 took place within two days of each other. Both were shootings.

On Sept. 13, Yant Junior Gomez was shot in the Arundel Mills mall parking lot, near the Cinemark movie theater. A 31-year-old from Harlem, New York, Gomez died en route to the hospital. Dontay Fitzgerald, 45, was charged with first- and second-degree murder for the nighttime shooting and is scheduled to appear in court Jan. 24.

On Sept. 15, Anthony Lee Brown was found with a gunshot wound in the woods at the end of a neighborhood court in Severn. Brown, 40, was taken to a hospital in Glen Burnie, where he was pronounced dead.

A suspect has not been identified in Brown’s killing.

The next two homicides took place within a week of each other in Annapolis. And though city police identified the same woman as a person of interest in both cases, she has only been charged in one.

On Sept. 26, John Logan was shot and killed inside an Annapolis apartment. Then, on Oct. 3, Allison McIntyre was shot inside her car at the Safeway on Forrest Drive, less than 3 miles from where Logan was killed.

Using witnesses’ camera recordings, as well as nearby security footage, authorities arrested Monet Thompson hours after the second killing, believing she was in the car with McIntyre, 59, before the shooting. Police said the two women knew each other, but did not say how. In charging documents for the McIntyre case, city police referred to Thompson as a “person of interest” in Logan’s killing, saying they had been surveilling Thompson the day of the second shooting. Thompson has not been charged in Logan’s death, however, according to the Maryland Judiciary.

Thompson has published multiple books, including one about a woman whose family is granted permanent criminal immunity after saving the president from an assassination attempt. Thompson is scheduled to appear in court in late February.

Have a news tip? Contact Luke Parker at lparker@baltsun.com, 410-725-6214, or on X @lparkernews.