WANTED by the ALEXANDRIA POLICE DEPARTMENT ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA   OFFENSE            Homicide   POSTER NO. 00-005         LOCATION 100 block E. Custis Ave. DATE 04-19-00 SUSPECT NAME       Unknown ALIAS   ADDRESS   RACE       B SEX      M AGE 20-30 DOB HEIGHT 5'7"-5'10" WEIGHT  150-170 HAIR     Blk EYES    Bro CLOTHING Dark pants, brown or tan crew neck sweater. SUSPECT NAME       Unknown FURTHER DESCRIPTION Possible facial hair CONTACT: INVESTIGATOR Detective W. Smith CASE# 00029132 CASE# 703-838-4081   DESCRIPTION OF OFFENSE/MISCELLANEOUS REMARKS   The above composite is of the suspect in the above homicide.  At the time of the offense the suspect produce a large knife from a paper bag and killed an eight year old boy.  He then assaulted an eighty-two year old female and stabbed a fifty year old woman who had come to the aid of the victim.  The suspect fled on foot toward Mr. Vernon Avenue.   *The suspect should be considered armed and dangerous *   Anyone with information is asked to call Alexandria Crime Solvers at 703-838-4858 or the Alexandria Police Criminal Investigations Section at 703-838-4711.   VERIFY WITH ABOVE AGENCY THAT PERSON IS STILL WANTED BEFORE ARREST

Source: THE WASHINGTON TIMES 4/20/00

Black Kills 8-year-old White Boy in Knife Attack

By Ellen Sorokin and John Drake

Kevin Shifflett in second grade. (Yearbook Photo)

A knife-wielding man yesterday attacked an 8-year-old in Alexandria, Va., killing the boy and injuring his great-grandmother and a passer-by who tried to stop the random, unprovoked attack, police said.

"It's a tragic afternoon here in Alexandria," said Lt. John Crawford, a city police spokesman. "I have never heard of anything like this in my entire career."

Kevin Shifflett, 8, had been playing with several neighborhood children outside his great-grandparents' house in the 100 block of East Custis Avenue about 3:40 p.m. when a man walking down the street suddenly attacked him with a knife "for no apparent reason," Lt. Crawford said.

Kevin's 80-year-old great-grandmother ran out of the house to protect him, but the man punched her in the chest and cut her on the right arm. She was treated at Alexandria Hospital and released last night.

The 51-year-old passer-by who tried to help the boy also was stabbed. The passer-by was in serious condition last night after undergoing surgery at Washington Hospital Center.

Police did not identify either woman because they are witnesses to a crime.

After attacking the boy, who is white, the man fled east toward Mount Vernon Avenue. Police issued a lookout for the man last night, calling him "armed and dangerous."

They described him as black, 20 to 25 years old, 5 feet 9 inches tall and with a medium build. He was wearing a light brown sweater, dark blue T-shirt and dark pants.

Police last night did not know of any motive for what they called an "apparently random attack," nor whether the boy and his assailant were acquainted, or why the man singled out Kevin from the other children, Lt. Crawford said. Police were interviewing neighbors and bystanders to see whether anyone recognized him, he added.

Kevin was a second-grader at Mount Vernon Elementary School and was visiting his great-grandparents.

"Kevin was a happy, kind little boy who was very quiet and respectful in school," said Roberta Trout, whose son, Timmy, is Kevin's cousin. Mrs. Trout, 38, is a substitute teacher at Kevin's school.

Kevin's parents, who work for the city government, dropped off Kevin and his two siblings at the house yesterday morning before going to work.

Timmy Trout, 6, had been playing with Kevin and several other children until a half-hour before the slaying, when his grandfather, Ralph Trout, called him home to help plant a tree.

"That could have been my child . that would have been my child," said Mrs. Trout, who lives a half block from where the attack occurred.

"I don't know what I'm going to do with my boy now," she said. Mr. Trout said he ran over to the grandparents' house when he heard police cars driving down the street. "The grandmother showed me her arm and didn't say anything," Mr. Trout said. "She was just in shock." Several hours after the attack, yellow police tape still marked off the area as police continued their investigation. Police worked well into the night collecting evidence from the blood-splattered driveway where Kevin was slain.

Officers, some with police dogs, went door to door yesterday afternoon, searching for the suspect and any evidence.

Neighbors stood behind the police tape aghast at the dried blood on a gray Chevrolet Cavalier parked in the driveway next to where the children had been playing.

"It's just really, really sad," said neighbor Chris Combs, who saw Kevin and his friends playing outside an hour before the attack occurred. "Nothing like this has ever happened here before. I grew up here, and we all played here. It's a wonderful neighborhood. This is just unbelievable."

The great-grandparents' house is not far from Del Ray United Methodist Church and a preschool. C. Potter,, a teacher at the preschool a block from the killing, said she locked the church doors after she went out to check if the playground was wet and saw police cars. "This is a big trauma for this neighborhood," Ms. Potter, 36, said.

Alexandria Vice Mayor William Euille, a Democrat, was among those neighbors standing in the street, watching the scene in disbelief. "This is very sad and very tragic," said Mr. Euille, who lives four blocks away. "This is not natural to have this happen in our community." "I'm stunned," said Bill Miller, whose 9-year-old daughter attended school with the boy. "Kevin was a great little kid. How could you even imagine what could provoke an adult to slash a child? It could have been my child on my street."

Mr. Miller said he will now think twice about allowing his daughter to play outside unattended. "I'm always cautious," he said. "But I don't know now. Things have changed a little bit since this happened." Jacqueline Richardson, tightly holding a granddaughter who attends the preschool, said she was "just shocked this happened." "I can't believe someone did that to a small child," Mrs. Richardson said.

A grand jury yesterday indicted an Alexandria, Va., man in the April slaying of an 8-year-old boy who was slashed and stabbed as he played in his great-grandparents' front yard.

Gregory Devon Murphy, 29, was charged with capital murder in the April 19 killing of Kevin Shifflett, after almost six months of investigation.

Murphy, who has been in Fairfax County jail since April on an unrelated drug charge, faces the death penalty, if convicted.

In addition to the murder charge, Murphy was charged with two counts of malicious wounding in the stabbing of Christine DeCourt and an assault on Thelma Taylor, both of whom tried to stop the attack. Each of those counts carries a maximum of 20 years in prison.

Murphy will be arraigned at 10 a.m. today in Circuit Court at the Alexandria Courthouse. He also is set to stand trial Oct. 17 in Fairfax County on a drug charge.

Police painstakingly gathered evidence, although they ran into some trouble: There was DNA evidence linking Kevin and Murphy to a cab the killer took after the attack occurred, but no DNA evidence linking Murphy to the crime scene. Also, the composite sketch of the killer did not resemble Murphy, and witnesses could not positively identify Murphy.

The killing occurred in the 100 block of East Custis Avenue in Alexandria's Del Ray neighborhood. The attacker slashed Kevin's 80-year-old great-grandmother, Mrs. Taylor, as well as Ms. DeCourt.

Murphy lived about five blocks from the scene of the crime. He was paroled from prison on a malicious-wounding charge 12 days before Kevin was killed, sources said.

Murphy was arrested at the Homewood Suites hotel in Baileys Crossroads on April 17 after firefighters were called and found the man's room burning. He was released on bond for cocaine and misdemeanor charges.

Sources have been quoted as saying Murphy had left a note in his hotel room that mentioned, in broken English, killing white children. Murphy is black; Kevin was white.

A witness to the April 19 attack said the killer shouted about hating white people.

A federal grand jury has been investigating possible civil rights violations by Murphy, but Alexandria Commonwealth Attorney S. Randolph Sengel said yesterday U.S. Attorney Helen Fahey agreed not to bring any federal charges. The state charges carry a heavier penalty than federal charges would, Mr. Sengel said.

In July, The Washington Times reported the Justice Department was "monitoring" the case as a potential hate crime (Webmaster's Note: Translation: No Hate Crime Charge).

In 1993, Murphy was arrested for assaulting a stranger with a hammer at an Alexandria Exxon gas station. He was charged with malicious wounding, petty larceny and impeding a police investigation. The next year, he was found guilty on all three charges and sentenced to five years and nine months in prison, court documents show. Murphy ended his prison term on
those charges April 7.

Alexandria Police Chief Charles E. Samarra said he is thankful to the efforts of not only his officers but also the FBI, Secret Service and other local police departments.

Chief Samarra said, however, the residents of the tightly knit Del Ray community also helped solve the case. "I am very grateful for the work and support of the people of Del Ray and Potomac West," Chief Samarra said. "These neighbors showed us all what true community spirit is."

Police spokesman Lt. John D. Crawford said the police received cooperation from the community every time they asked for it.
"They were extremely beneficial and helpful from the outset," he said.

Loretta Trout, a distant relative and friend of the Shifflett's whose own grandson, 7-year-old Timothy Trout, was out playing with Kevin shortly before he was killed, said the indictment gives some sense of comfort to the community. "I guess you could say it would be closure, but it's going to take a long time to heal," Mrs. Trout said. "I had seen [Kevin] since birth - he was a beautiful, very quiet child," she said.

(CNSNews.com) - Three months after the stabbing death of eight-year-old Kevin Shifflett in Alexandria, Virginia, US Justice Department officials have yet to decide that a "federal civil rights case is warranted."

Was the killing a hate crime? If it was, does the Clinton Justice Department care? When the victim is white and the suspect is black, does the case automatically get little or no attention?

A spokesperson for the Justice Department acknowledges only that the department is "aware of reports that have been in the media that [the Kevin Shifflett murder] may have a racial motive," that officers are "monitoring the situation," and that "we certainly look at the information that's presented us and make the determination that we feel is appropriate."

By contrast, Attorney General Janet Reno recently met with the family of Raynard Johnson, a 17-year-old black man who allegedly hanged himself. While black activists like Reverend Jesse Jackson have labeled Johnson's death a lynching, two autopsies, including one paid for by Johnson's family, found that the injuries were consistent with suicide and there was no evidence of foul play.

The Justice Department also launched a preliminary investigation in West Virginia into the killing of Arthur "J.R." Warren Jr., a black homosexual man, after the Deputy Attorney General met with the family, even though, according to reports, FBI officials "determined there is no reason the case would fall under federal jurisdiction."

The involvement of the NAACP and the Human Rights Campaign led the Justice Department into direct involvement in the case, according to Kara Peterman, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department's civil rights division.

The disparity in the handling of the cases proves the Justice Department "will investigate anything except European- American cases," according to Louis Calabro, president of the European-American Issues Forum who spoke out against the department's handling of the Kevin Shifflett murder case.

"If it is European-American victims, they want nothing to do with it, but if it has to do with other racial ethnic groups, they want everything to do with it," Calabro said.

Calabro believes the disparity of coverage between the Warren and Shifflett cases is "not a question of ignoring one case."
"It's a question of the President of the United States that shows...that the president isn't even aware that white people or European-American people are victims of hate crimes...or he's not concerned with it," Calabro said.

Calabro sent an official "request for FBI investigation of Alexandria, VA. Kevin Shifflett murder" to the FBI Washington Field Office.

"We asked them to investigate...the charge by the Washington Times that the police department withheld information from their own personnel regarding the racial aspect of the crime," Calabro said. "Of course they don't answer us."

"[The Justice Department] is going to open the door for anything," Calabro said. "They should be in the Kevin Shifflett case because there's indication that in fact the local authorities were attempting to conceal racial aspect[s]."

A suspect in the Shifflett case, who has not yet been charged, allegedly left a racist note in his hotel room, threating to kill white children. In 1993, the suspect also reportedly beat a man with a hammer while calling his victim "whitey."

Peterman had no knowledge of any contact made by Reno or her top lieutenants with the Shifflett family. A telephone call from the Justice Department to the Shifflett family would be a local call since Alexandria is located just a few miles from the Justice Department's Washington headquarters.

"Do you mean...a condolence call? I would actually have to talk with the Attorney General's personal assistant to see if any of that call [was made]," Peterman said. "I don't know what personal correspondence the Attorney General has had or not had."