DISTRICT BRIEFING

Tuesday, August 8, 2006

Northeast

Two Teens Shot and Wounded at Go-Go Club

Two 15-year-olds were shot yesterday outside a go-go club at the wholesale produce market in Northeast Washington, according to D.C. police. Both suffered non-life-threatening wounds.

Shortly after 6 p.m., two groups of teenagers in the Market Lounge on Fifth Street NE started arguing, police said. The club operators asked the patrons, about 200 in all, to leave.

After the patrons left the club, someone opened fire, striking a teenage girl in a leg and a teenage boy in a hand, said D.C. police spokesman Quintin Peterson. Fights also broke out outside the club, Peterson said, and a 15-year-old youth was pistol-whipped. No one had been charged late last night in the shootings.

-- Allan Lengel

False claim

D.C. Officer Receives Suspended Sentence

A D.C. police officer was handed a suspended sentence yesterday and ordered to pay restitution for filing a false insurance claim, according to Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr.

Calvin L. Roots, 40, of Forestville was given a two-year suspended sentence, and as part of a plea agreement, agreed to resign from the police department, where he had worked for 17 years.

According to Curran, Roots reported to his insurance company that his pickup truck was stolen and inflated its value, resulting in an overpayment of $3,059. He was ordered to return that money to his insurance company. He also submitted a false invoice for a car stereo that supposedly was in the truck, according to Curran.

-- Allison Klein

blood shortage

Red Cross and Police Appeal for Donations

The American Red Cross and the D.C. police department made a joint plea yesterday for blood donations.

The Red Cross said some area hospitals have a two- to three-day supply of blood, while others have as little as a half-day supply. Hospitals like to have a three- to five-day supply, officials said.

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) issued a special request for donations from African Americans, who make up 13 percent of the country's population but just 2 percent of blood donors, she said.

-- Allison Klein