In just 20 minutes Monday night, four people were shot, one fatally, in a spasm of violence that had District police racing to three unrelated shooting scenes in neighborhoods east of the Anacostia River.
By Tuesday evening, authorities said they knew little of what sparked the violence that broke out between about 11:20 p.m. and 11:40 p.m. They identified a man shot in the 4700 block of Brooks Street NE as Jerry Williams, 22. He died at a hospital.
D.C. police said Williams, who lived in Northeast Washington, was struck in the chest, but they would not say whether they knew of a motive or had any leads.
The District has recorded 53 homicides through the end of July, compared with 62 at this time last year.
Monday night’s first shooting occurred about 11:20 p.m. when police said a 16-year-old boy and a 19-year-old man were shot outside an apartment building in the 4800 block of Alabama Ave SE. Officer Anthony Clay, a police spokesman, said a gunman in a silver four-door vehicle opened fire, striking the 19-year-old in the leg and grazing the leg of the boy. Neither was seriously injured.
About 11:30 p.m. Monday, police said, another 16-year-old was shot in the left shoulder as he tried to run from a confrontation with as many as 10 teenagers and young men riding bicycles in the 2700 block of Naylor Road SE.
Clay said the youth bolted after an armed bicyclist threatened six youths standing on the street by saying, “Give it up,” a common robbery demand.
Police have reported several instances of bicyclists attacking people and speeding away, including an armed robbery Sunday on New York Avenue NE, four others earlier in July and a sexual assault in Dupont Circle.
Police said the motive in the Naylor Road incident appears to be robbery. D.C. Council member Marion Barry (D-Ward 8), who represents the area where the second 16-year-old was shot, said that the groups had been arguing inside a McDonald’s restaurant and that the dispute continued outside.
“It doesn’t take much in the city for a person to go off,” Barry said of the shooting in the Good Hope neighborhood. He said he wants to put together a summit for gangs and other bands of youth who are causing trouble in neighborhoods such as this one.
“I want to put together something for these warring crews,” he said. “It’s going to be difficult, but we’ve got to try anyway. You can get a gun in D.C. quicker than you can get a sandwich. We’re not unique among big cities, but we have a huge opportunity to do something different.”
The shooting in Good Hope, east of Anacostia, occurred on a triangular patch of barren land that forms a traffic island between Naylor Road and Alabama Ave. SE. On Tuesday, the only remaining sign of the shooting was a shard of yellow police tape clinging to a small tree in the median.
On Tuesday night, police said, a man was wounded in a shooting in the 4700 block of Alabama Ave. No details were immediately available.
The Post Most: LocalMost-viewed stories, videos and galleries int he past two hours
Loading...
Comments