Major Urban Violent Crime

D.C. police have arrested 36-year-old Rico Rashaad Barnes of Northwest Washington and charged him with first-degree murder while armed in the February killing of 40-year-old Syed Hammad Hussain, who was found bound, beaten and set on fire inside his Logan Circle condominium. Firefighters responding to a 3:30 a.m. smoke call on Feb. 11 discovered a small blaze in the 1400 block of Rhode Island Avenue NW and Hussain’s body; the medical examiner later ruled his death a homicide by blunt force trauma and ligature strangulation, with burns inflicted after death. A 27-page affidavit cited by police and prosecutors says security video shows two men following Hussain into his building, assaulting him in the lobby and forcing him toward his unit, where his wrists and ankles were later found bound amid blood-stained walls and furniture. Investigators allege the killing occurred during a robbery in which roughly $50,000 in electronics, jewelry and cash were stolen, and say extensive video review was critical to identifying Barnes and a second suspect who is already jailed on unrelated charges and is expected to be charged. The case is drawing attention both because of the brutality involved and because it occurred in a high-end, heavily trafficked neighborhood often held up as a marker of D.C.’s revitalization, feeding ongoing debate about serious violent crime in the nation’s capital.