Teen's Shooting Prompts Neighborhood Meeting on Violence

Last week, David Cauthen believed his teenager had found her way when she came into the kitchen for a hug. The 17-year-old was about to graduate from high school, and she told her father that she was in love. Her dad thought she finally "got it."

Last Saturday night, Brittany Hall's life essentially ended. A bullet, which police think was not intended for her, ripped through a car she was sitting in on her Northwest Washington block and slammed into the back of her neck.

It severed her spinal cord, leaving her brain-dead at Howard University Hospital. The family was considering taking her off life support last night.

"I keep seeing this picture in my mind of my daughter. . . . She told me she was in love," Cauthen said, fighting back tears. "And it was the happiest moment I've seen from her in two years."

Cauthen told this to Petworth neighbors, activists and city officials who came together last night to discuss several shootings this year, the police response to Saturday's incident, and how the neighborhood can help solve Brittany's shooting and prevent further bloodshed.

About 11:15 p.m. Saturday, Brittany sat in a Mercury in the 1300 block of Taylor Street NW with a male friend, whom police would not identify because he is a witness, when shots struck the back of the car. Her friend drove toward Howard University, where a school security officer brought them to the hospital and notified D.C. police.

Residents told Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) and Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier that officers who responded to 911 calls about gunshots did not knock on every door and that the officers then left. Police officials said officers found no victims at the scene. Lanier promised that the matter would be investigated.

Detectives think the car was mistakenly targeted in a feud between neighborhood groups, but no witnesses have come forward.

Capt. C.V. Morris, head of the Violent Crimes Branch, said that at least 10 people were outside during the shooting and that the community has "got to take a stand" to help close the case. "We need to be able to put pressure on these people," Morris said. "I'm begging you. If you've got the information, let us know."

Dozens of neighbors left the meeting to march by candlelight to the family's rowhouse, where Brittany's family and neighbors remembered her as a polite girl who often stayed indoors reading. Shirley J.B. Saunders, a family friend and 30-year activist in the area, said the teenager spoke to her on her way to school each morning, asking, "Miss Shirley, do you need anything?"

"This touched me deeply. This is like my daughter," Saunders said. "We've got to take back the streets. I'm tired of lip service -- it's now or never."

Cauthen said his daughter wavered between being "a nerd" and being pulled by a "thug life" with friends on the street. But in recent months, she focused on graduating from Booker T. Washington Public Charter School for Technical Arts and, after that, maybe studying criminal justice.

Now, her father has justice on his mind. Cauthen urged police to be more communicative on the street and asked his neighbors not to be afraid to help investigators. Cauthen spoke out against residents' fear of cooperating with police, and he challenged a "stop snitching" campaign promoted by some rap artists and supported in many urban neighborhoods.

"I have my own campaign: I don't snitch. I tell," Cauthen said. "And when I see you, you're going to jail."