D.C. homicides fueled by rundown properties

Angela Washington was the last line of defense for residents at the Oak Hill Apartments in Southeast besieged by gun violence. Then, on the evening of Sept. 21, the 41-year-old special police officer was shot to death.

Why it matters: The District’s spike in gun violence is being linked partly to rundown properties that city officials and residents say have become magnets for criminal activity.

• Residents tie Washington's killing to longstanding squalid and dangerous conditions at the apartment complex.
• Before Washington's death, residents at Oak Hill complained to their landlord about doors that didn't lock, backed-up sewage, rotting walls, and strangers in vacant units.