Washington, D.C. Had Just One Homicide In January

WASHINGTON—The nation’s capital saw just one homicide in January.

For those who have experienced Washington’s deadly crime wave over the past few years, this is an astounding statistic. January 2025 alone saw 10 homicides in D.C., part of the “generational crime spike” that left Washingtonians wary of being on the streets at night.

The Metropolitan Police Department confirmed to The Daily Wire on Monday that the single homicide occurred on January 21, 2026, and that victim (identified by the Washington Post as an 18-year-old high school student named Malik Delonte Moore) succumbed to his injuries on January 22.

Another homicide occurred early Monday morning, February 2, MPD shared, bringing the total 2026 homicides in D.C. up to two.

The massive decrease in crime comes after the president’s enforcement operations in D.C., which resulted in more than 1,000 arrests in the first month alone, according to White House data shared with The Daily Wire.

The law enforcement surge has since resulted in over 9,300 arrests, a White House official said. Before this year, D.C. had not begun a year in which there were no homicides for 10 days in three decades, the Washington Post reports. While that legacy publication suggests that “reasons for the crime drop are complex,” the White House is unambiguously taking credit for cleaning up D.C.

“President Trump promised to make Washington, D.C. safe and beautiful again — now it is one of the safest cities in the country,” White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers told The Daily Wire. “Thanks to President Trump’s successful federal law enforcement operation, our nation’s capital has seen a dramatic decrease in crime and homicide.”

Team Trump has long criticized blue cities across the country that see high crime but refuse to accept the help of the president in cleaning up their cities.

“Cities across the country with out-of-control crime, like Chicago, should be begging for President Trump’s help,” Rogers said Monday.

Pete Hegseth, JD Vance, and Stephen Miller in Union Station (Photo by Al Drago-Pool/Getty Images)

Police statistics show that most crimes in Washington have fallen below the pre-pandemic levels, when crime spiked during the shutdowns. Crimes that have fallen include robberies, carjackings, burglaries, and vehicular threats. “Assault with a dangerous weapon” is the only category that is up this year — a category that includes nonfatal shootings.

When Trump declared a crime emergency in the District of Columbia in August, he warned that the city was, “by some measures, among the top 20 percent of the most dangerous cities in the world.”  Washington had averaged one of the highest robbery and murder rates of large cities in the nation in 2024. As of August 2025, D.C. had a higher violent crime, murder, and robbery rate than all 50 states, and the nation’s highest vehicle theft rate.

“The increase in violent crime in the heart of our Republic has consequences beyond the individual tragedies that have dominated media coverage,” the president warned at the time. “Such lawlessness also poses intolerable risks to the vital Federal functions that take place in the District of Columbia.”

“Violence and crime hamper the recruitment and retention of essential Federal employees, undermine critical functions of Government and thus the well-being of the entire Nation, and erode confidence in the strength of the United States,” he added. “These conditions are disgraceful anywhere, but particularly in the capital of our Nation and the seat of the Federal Government.”

President Donald Trump visits the U.S. Park Police Anacostia Operations Facility on August 21, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

The president is immensely proud of the success of his enforcement, repeatedly saying in public remarks that D.C. has become so safe, anyone can walk about at night in safety — usually following up with a joke about how your wife is now safe walking alone as well.

“The results are actually palpable,” U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro explained to a local D.C. outlet in late January. “You can feel it, and you can see it on the street right now. Because of the surge that the President created in August of 2025, we have seen an incredible reduction in crime.”

“People are able to go out on the street and not be assaulted by some of the young crews that are out there committing violent crimes, possessing guns, shooting at each other,” she added.

“There is a tremendous difference in Washington, D.C. now. And in terms of my office, we are prosecuting more cases than we’ve ever prosecuted, than have ever been prosecuted in the history of this District. We are listening to the police. We are taking their arrest, and we are prosecuting those cases.”

Across the nation, according to the Council on Criminal Justice, the murder rate has also dropped to a historic low: a new report from the council weighing crime statistics from 40 cities found that 11 of 13 crime categories had dropped from 2024 to 2025, and nine of those categories (including homicides) had dropped by 10% or more.

“President Trump promised to bring back Law and Order to the United States of America,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Thursday, highlighting a chart from the Council on Criminal Justice. “This is what happens when you have a President who fully mobilizes federal law enforcement to arrest violent criminals and the worst of the worst illegal aliens.”