Police Seek Answers in Drive-By Shooting

D.C. police continue to investigate who is responsible for shooting into a crowd of people Friday night on the edge on Capitol Hill, killing one man and wounding three others.

One of the victims, whom police did not identify, was struck in the toe by a bullet as he stood inside his home in the 1500 block of East Capitol Street, police said.

"A bullet went through the door," said Sgt. Joe Gentile, a police spokesman.

The drive-by shootings occurred just before midnight, when Jason Kinney, 26, was hanging out on the corner with friends. Kinney was shot several times in the abdomen and died shortly after at a hospital.

Authorities did not identify the other victims because they are witnesses in the case, but police said a 25-year-old man was shot in the ankle and a 30-year-old man was shot in the arm. Their wounds were not believed to be life-threatening.

Kinney, of the 3600 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SE, was the third-eldest of six boys. He lived with his parents, who said that their son was kindhearted, once giving away his coat to a shivering stranger.

"He was a compassionate child," said his mother, Tawana Kinney. "He was a good brother to his younger brothers. And there were times he would talk to me when I was depressed about something."

Jason Kinney had recently come home from a year in a prison in West Virginia. His mother did not elaborate on why he was serving time.

She still has a check from the Federal Bureau of Prisons that was sent home after his release. It was for $1.32, and he had refused to cash it, his mother said.

"He said, 'What I'm going to do with that?' " Tawana Kinney said yesterday as she and her husband accepted visitors at their home in Congress Heights.

Her son attended a job training program for ex-offenders near their home but was getting discouraged because jobs that were supposed to be tied to it were not coming through.

The Kinneys received the call that their son had been shot at 12:01 a.m. Saturday. Tawana Kinney said her son hung out in that area often because he had family ties there -- both she and her husband, Demetrious, grew up in the neighborhood, and Jason's grandmother lives nearby. Last night, 150 mourners converged there for a vigil to remember him.

Kinney said she was told by others who were at the scene that her son was in a crowd of people when a truck pulled up and sprayed the crowd with bullets. The Kinneys said their son did not appear to be the target of the gunfire.

"I didn't get to say goodbye," Tawana Kinney said. "They shot the wrong one. This one is going to bring attention to the epidemic going on in our community. No mother, no father, no sister, no grandparent should have to live like this. I can't accept that this is just how it is. We have got to take our community back."