Laurel, MD: Murder-suicide in Laurel adds to violent day in P.G.

By: Ben Giles | 09/14/11 8:05 PM
Examiner Staff Writer Follow Him @Ben_giles

Photos.com There have been 78 homicides in Prince George's County this year, including Wednesday's shooting of a Laurel woman.
A woman was shot to death in front of her 10-year-old son on Wednesday morning in Laurel, the first homicide in the city in two years, according to police officials.
Brandice Jones, 26, was shot six times outside of her apartment at the corner of Buckingham Drive and Shiloh Court in Laurel. Jones appeared to be exiting her car when a man shot her six times, once in the head, in front of her young boy, according to Laurel police spokesman Jim Collins.

Jones' son was found safe at the scene, he said. About 10 minutes later, police found the gunman dead in a vehicle about a quarter mile away. The man had driven behind a retirement home on the 9100 block of Cherry Lane and shot himself, Collins said.

Javan Terrance Abney

Laurel police just recently closed a nearly two-year-old homicide investigation, the last murder in the city, according to Collins.

"We normally go about three years between homicides," Collins said. "It's a sad situation all around."

Prince George's County homicide investigators were handling the investigation of the man's death, and had not yet released his name.

In a separate incident, Afamefuna Jamaine Onkuwa, a 22-year-old from Landover, was found at about 12:30 a.m. suffering from gunshot wounds on the 4600 block of Garrett Avenue in Beltsville. The bloody Wednesday morning left three people in Prince George's County dead.

Police are still searching for a suspect and motive in the case, according to Cpl. Evan Baxter, police spokesman.

Wednesday's violence also included a stabbing at High Point High School in Beltsville, where three juvenile males were arrested for their role in an early morning fight that set one student to the hospital with a minor stab wound to the shoulder.

Including a Monday homicide in Landover, where 21-year-old Aaron Marquette Jones was killed that night, four have died in Prince George's in the last three days.

There have been 78 homicides in Prince George's County this year, including the one in Laurel. There had been 65 homicides by that date in 2010. Homicides are on a pace to exceed 100 for the first time since 2008.

Violent crimes are down in all other categories, including rape, robberies, carjackings and assaults. Even with the high number of homicides, violent crimes overall are down 11.4 percent this year, Baxter said.