Published March 1, 2011

A fatal stabbing last week in Dorchester brings Boston’s 2011 homicide count to three — less than half of last year’s tally at this time, seven.

Why? We may never know. It’s easy to assume the abnormal snowfall has kept more people inside.

The news of last week’s homicide passed right by me. Prosecutors say Cherry Clinton, 29, stabbed her boyfriend to death in a domestic dispute on the morning of Feb. 25. It happened at 80 Ames Way.

At her arraignment Monday, Clinton said the death was accident — that she grabbed the knife in self-defense as her boyfriend, 23-year-old Lancelot Reid, lunged toward her. Prosecutors argue it would be difficult for a knife to penetrate layers of clothing and flesh without force.

The Herald reports at least five people have died from domestic violence this year, according to the Massachusetts advocacy group Jane Doe, Inc.

I updated  WBUR’s map of Boston homicide victims.

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Update: Boston Police reported a fourth homicide after two men were shot early Wednesday in the Theater District. The Globe reports the 29-year-old victim is Jamie Lee, a local rapper aka Roc Dukati. The other man survived. Police arrested two men, Andrew Flonory, 26, of Brockton and Joshua Hollis, 22, of Cambridge, on weapons charges. Neither Flonory nor Hollis are charged in the death. Flonory is the brother of Eyanna Flonory, the woman killed in the mass Mattapan murders of September 2010.