While signing executive orders at the White House on Aug. 25, President Donald Trump wrongly said that an 11-day span of no homicides in Washington, D.C., was the “first time that’s taken place in years,” a claim reiterated by other members of the administration who credited Trump’s federal takeover of the district’s law enforcement.
An 11-day stretch with zero murders is rare in the city, but there was a 16-day period with no murders earlier this year, from Feb. 25 to March 12, according to Metropolitan Police Department data.
“In the last 11 days, we’ve had no murders and that’s the first time that’s taken place in years, actually years. We always have a murderer a week. They call it a murder a week,” Trump said as he prepared to sign executive orders aimed at ending no-cash-bail policies in Washington and other jurisdictions. He repeated it later: “So for 11 days there have been no murders. The record goes back years where that’s happened. They haven’t seen that happen in years.”
