The city is on pace to surpass 200 homicides for the third consecutive year. Before 2021, D.C. hadn’t reached 200 killings since 2003. Homicides this year are up 19 percent compared with this time in 2022.

The rise in violence comes as federal lawmakers have focused intently on D.C.’s crime, successfully blocking a measure that would have overhauled the city’s criminal code in ways some members of Congress felt were too lenient, and raising concerns about previously passed police reform measures.

D.C. police said the last time the city reached 100 homicides before June 6 was May 27, 2003. A decade ago, the District did not have 100 homicides until Dec. 7. The city never reached triple-digits in 2012, when 88 people were killed, the fewest in a half-century.

D.C. has seen rises in shootings and carjackings over the past three years, with violence against youths emerging as a particular concern in recent months. Eight youths between the ages of 10 and 17 have been killed in violence this year.

June has been particularly deadly, with a one-a-day homicide pace. In one instance, police say, a man shot another man who threw a bottle at him. In another, a man died after he was doused with a flammable liquid and set on fire in Southeast Washington during a dispute.

Bowser is interviewing candidates to replace Contee and is seeking a new head for the Office of Gun Violence Prevention, following the death of its director in May. The mayor has launched a community survey and scheduled a town hall on June 15 to get input from residents on what they want to see in the next police chief.

Lindsey Appiah, the deputy mayor for public safety and justice, said officials are encouraged by survey returns, with most responses coming from residents east of the river in Wards 7 and 8.

“They said they need a chief who understands that they are a strong policy advocate,” Appiah said. “It’s what our residents are telling us, that they understand the environment that we are in, and that across the city, people want to feel safe.”

The District’s 100th homicide occurred about 6:35 p.m. Tuesday when a man was shot at a gas station in the 4700 block of South Capitol Street SE, at the city’s southern most tip in Washington Highlands. Police identified the victim as Joshua White, 29, of Southeast Washington.

About 10:20 p.m. that night, police said Georgia Gray, 63, was shot and killed in the 1200 block of 49th Street NE, in the Deanwood neighborhood — No. 101. Police said a man was also shot in the incident, with injuries described as not life-threatening. A police report said the shooting occurred outside Gray’s residence.

Early Wednesday, police said Richard Hendrix, 32, of Northeast Washington was fatally shot in the 4000 block of Third Street SE, in Washington Highlands — No. 102. Police said he was found inside a residential building.

Police did not describe the circumstances of the three killings, and said no arrests have been made. Efforts to reach relatives were not immediately successful.

Interim D.C. police chief Ashan M. Benedict, speaking at an announcement of a new partnership with DoorDash offering drivers free security cameras to help tamp down car thefts and carjackings, said that “every homicide is a tragedy.”

The chief said that police are concentrating extra patrols in each district where crime is most acute and that so far there have been “decreases in crimes” in those locations.

Benedict said that on Tuesday there were no violent crimes in the city between late afternoon and early evening, when the most people are out and about. That streak was broken with the fatal shooting on South Capitol Street.

“We had one homicide,” Benedict said. “One. That one homicide detracts from what’s otherwise a good, productive day for the Metropolitan Police Department.”

Benedict said that residents will start seeing more police in neighborhoods throughout the city this summer, including conducting traffic stops. He said “people are driving around with seeming impunity.”

The D.C. police union issued a statement blaming the uptick in homicides in part on a police reform bill, arguing its provisions are driving officers off the force and impeding those who remain in stopping crime — a claim lawmakers have disputed. Among other things, the bill limits police searching people or property based on getting consent, instead of a warrant, and requires police to make video from body cameras public when officers shoot people.

As of June 2, D.C. police had 3,343 sworn members. So far this fiscal year, which started in October, police said 210 officers have left the force, including 85 who resigned and 80 who retired. The department has hired 96 officers in that period.

Contee, the former police chief, said in April that he expected the size of the force to drop to 3,130 officers by the end of fiscal 2024, despite new hiring efforts by the city. The department had about 3,900 officers in 2014.

“Resignations are now outpacing retirements, and recruiting numbers are abysmal,” Greggory Pemberton, the chairman of the D.C. police union, said in a statement Wednesday.

Bowser has proposed legislation to stiffen penalties for illegal gun possession and to make it easier for judges to hold some defendants before trial if they have previous convictions for violent crime. She said her bill will help “close gaps in the law” that she feels gives too easy a pass to repeat offenders.

“The best way to stop murderers is to lock up murderers and show them we’re holding them accountable,” Bowser said Wednesday.