Fight over dog ends with one District man dead, another charged in stabbing The fight that led to a District man's death began when two men argued about a dog that had strayed too close to one of their yards, according to court documents. Ellsworth Colbert, 56, was arrested Sunday in the stabbing death of Robert Leroy Wright, 37. He was charged with second-degree murder. On Monday, Magistrate Judge Karen A. Howze ordered Colbert held without bond in advance of a preliminary hearing scheduled for March 15. The dispute between the men began as Wright walked a dog past Colbert's home in the 3500 block of Pope Street SE on Sunday morning, the court documents said. A witness told police that Colbert, holding a knife and a walking stick, asked Wright whose dog it was. Wright told him. When Colbert then went to that person's house, according to the court documents, Wright followed him. Another witness then described a "verbal altercation" between the men that escalated when Colbert swung a knife at Wright, hitting his hand. Wright eventually obtained a shovel, according to court papers, and returned. "You going to stab me?" witnesses said he asked Colbert. The men fought, and Wright eventually collapsed. He was pronounced dead at a hospital later that morning, according to police, and Colbert was soon arrested. Colbert was active in District politics. He had been a volunteer for the D.C. Council campaign of Kevin B. Chavous, who is seeking to unseat Ward 7 incumbent Yvette M. Alexander in April's Democratic primary. Lamont Harrell, Chavous's campaign manager, said Colbert's role was largely limited to sign-waving and community events. On Thursday, Colbert testified before D.C. Council member Muriel Bowser (D-Ward 4) during her oversight proceedings for the Office of Employee Appeals during which he said he had been unemployed since a 1997 incident in which he was fired from his job as a traffic signal technician after an altercation with his boss. He had previously been barred from the John A. Wilson Building. "This has been going on for 14 years," Colbert testified Thursday. I guess they thought I was going to die . . . but I ain't. Staff reporter Keith L. Alexander contributed to this report.