Portraits of the 16 killed this year in Prince George's County

As February begins, Prince George's County homicide detectives are investigating 16 killings in the new year. These were victims five, six and 11. Like nearly all of the others, none of these victims knew one another. There is no evidence that their slayings were connected.

It is an inexplicable - maybe unavoidable - flare-up of death and mayhem in a county that wants desperately not to be defined by violence. Police insist that law-abiding residents have little to fear, because most victims were targeted by their killers, and many of those slain were selling drugs. But they cannot ignore the human toll: When you get killed in Prince George's, friends and relatives come to know your number.