Investigators think someone must have seen or heard a Saturday morning shooting just feet from a two-unit brick home on a Northeast Boundary street at about 1:30 a.m. But for now, efforts to crack the case have been stymied.
That has frustrated police, who are accustomed to community assistance with homicide cases.
“The change we’ve seen in the past three years is incredible in terms of people being cooperative with investigations,” said D.C police Assistant Chief Peter Newsham. “There are very small pockets of neighborhoods where that hasn’t been the case.”
Police see Northeast Boundary as one such place.
Citywide, homicides have fallen and arrest rates have risen in recent years. Because police rely heavily on community members to solve violent crimes, many in law enforcement interviewed for this story were reluctant to openly criticize residents’ cooperation.
But some in Northeast Boundary and elsewhere say police are out of touch, and they’d prefer police craft a proactive approach to crime fighting that keeps dangerous elements out. As a result, it can sometimes seem as though people discussing such issues are talking straight past each other — as they seem to be in the Jackson case.
The red-brick, barred-window building outside of which Bobby Jackson died is on a grassy hillside at the corner of 60th and Eads streets NE. No one answered the door of either unit on a recent evening, though the metal gates on the front doors were unlocked and open. Neighbors waved, answered doors and spoke with a visiting reporter, but few would attach their names to complaints about crime.
Northeast Boundary sits on the Prince George’s County line on the city’s northeastern edge. Residents can be seen after midnight chatting on stoops, talking in small groups and waiting for rides at Metro bus stops.
Widespread wariness
Economic change has come gradually to this enclave, which includes run-down apartment buildings but also well-tended rowhouses and single-family homes. A local church’s construction of a few shimmering new houses is pleasing to some who hope for more good neighbors. It’s not the city’s most violent neighborhood, but residents complain of prostitution, drug dealing and loud groups of drinkers after dark.
The Northeast Boundary Civic Association is an active group, attending meetings with police and calling elected representatives about local events. But many remain wary of police, complaining that officers who knock on their doors to ask questions make them targets for retaliation.
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