D.C. Teen Saves Infant Godson As She Dies in Gunfire in SE

3 Friends Hurt in Shooting; Police Know of No Motive

Cynthia "Little Cindy" Gray was hanging outside with friends on a hot night in Southeast Washington, her baby godson cradled tightly in her arms. Out of nowhere, a torrent of bullets blasted into the group, police said.

The 17-year-old rolled to the ground. First she tried to shield the infant with her body. The bullets kept coming. In a last, desperate act, she pushed the infant under a parked car. The shooter walked up and fired bullets into Gray's head, face and neck, killing her, police said. But the child was unhurt.

"Little Cindy gave up her life for the baby," said Gray's aunt, Juliette Randolph.

The killing Thursday night provoked outrage from police hardened by street violence in a long-troubled part of the city. "It's a cowardly act," said Capt. C.V. Morris, head of the police department's violent crimes unit.

Three of Gray's friends also were wounded in the shooting, in the 4600 block of Benning Road, outside a row of garden-style apartments: A 19-year-old woman was shot in the right arm, an 18-year-old man was shot in the upper back and another 18-year-old man was shot several times in both legs, police said.

Investigators did not identify the other teenagers but said they are expected to survive.

Police have not made any arrests and said they do not know of a motive in the killing, which happened about 11:30 p.m. Authorities said they cannot say whether Gray and the others were targeted, hit in a case of mistaken identity or victims of random violence.

Gray, who was to start her senior year at Eastern High School on Monday, had the 7-month-old with her almost all the time, friends and relatives said. She brought him along Thursday as she talked with friends a few blocks from her apartment on 46th Street SE.

It was "guardian angels" that kept the baby from harm, said Ke-Ke Jackson, the boy's aunt.

"She saved his life by throwing him under the car," Jackson said. "I just wish she was still here."

The baby's mother was not at the scene during the shooting, but she came to the scene quickly when she heard about what had happened, Jackson said.

Morris said police believe the incident started in Prince George's County about 11 p.m., when a man was carjacked on Suitland Road and the assailants made off with his gold-colored Cadillac. About 30 minutes later, police believe, two or three men drove the car to Benning Road, rolled down the window and two of them began firing at the group of teenagers, Morris said.