D.C. slaying of gay man is second in two weeks

On Jan. 10, police found 47-year-old Gordon Rivers along the 2600 block of Naylor Road, S.E., suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. Police said Rivers, a resident of Brandywine, Md., was pronounced dead a short time later after being taken to an area hospital.

One of Rivers’ friends circulated an e-mail Tuesday saying Rivers was a regular patron of the D.C. gay bar Bachelor’s Mill. A source familiar with the case said the police homicide squad earlier this week informed the department’s Gay & Lesbian Liaison Unit that Rivers was gay and invited the unit to assist in the investigation.

D.C. Police Capt. Edward Delgado, director of the department’s special liaison units, including the GLLU, circulated a police flyer with Rivers’ photo on Tuesday in an e-mail to local LGBT activists. He said detectives learned that Rivers was gay through their investigation of the case.

“There is no indication at this time that this homicide occurred as a result of a hate crime,” Delgado said.

Officer Helen Andrews, a police spokesperson, told DC Agenda on Wednesday that the homicide squad had no additional information on the case as of Wednesday, but police might release more details shortly.

Rivers’ murder came exactly two weeks after police found gay D.C. resident Anthony Perkins, 29, shot to death on Dec. 27 in his car near the intersection of Fourth and Oakwood streets, S.E. Police said they had yet to determine a motive and had no suspects in the Perkins case.

But homicide investigators said they were looking into a tip provided by Rev. Anthony Motley, a city minister and candidate for a seat on the D.C. City Council. Motley told DC Agenda that a mutual friend of his and Perkins informed him that Perkins may have been the target of an unidentified man believed to have committed a string of robberies in the neighborhood where Perkins was shot.

Perkins knew the robbery suspect and the suspect became “paranoid” that Perkins would report him to police, Motley recounted the mutual friend as saying.

Police said anyone with information about either of the two cases should call the police 24-hour hotline at 202-727-9099 or the homicide squad at 202-645-9600. The city offers a reward of up to $25,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of individuals charged with a homicide.

The police flyer released in the Rivers case calls on members of the community to contact these homicide detectives with information on that case: Det. Jed Worrell, 202-645-9618 (desk), 202-486-1596 (cell); Det. George Singletary, 202-645-4376 (desk), 202-487-9488 (cell).