6 Shootings in 2 Hours Stir Worries About Violence

Two minutes later, officers found a man shot in the leg in the 3600 block of Jay Street NE, a residential area also near the gardens.

Gunfire erupted again about 12:20 a.m. Three men and a woman were shot in an alley of the Barry Farm housing complex in the 1200 block of Eaton Road SE. The woman was shot in the buttocks. One man was shot in the calves, another in the back and the third in the thigh.

In the last shooting of the two-hour period, about 12:50 a.m., police were called to the 700 block of Congress Street SE, a few blocks from the site of the Raleigh Place shooting, where a man had been shot twice in the right arm.

Residents who live near the Kenilworth gardens said the shootings show a need for more officers in the neighborhoods, more street lighting and surveillance cameras.

Jeffrey Hall, 43, said Thursday night's shooting on Ponds Street NE was the second drive-by this summer in the 4400 block.

Hall, who works for Child and Family Services, said he and his wife, Chelivia, were watching a movie about 10:45 p.m. when they heard pop!, pop! and a loud crack.

The Halls said they looked up and realized that a bullet had pierced the window next to where they were sitting. Another bullet went through their shed, and a third punctured their air-conditioning unit.

"We were startled," Jeffrey Hall said. "I don't want to be sitting in my house and get shot." Hall recalled running outside and hearing people shouting, "My man got shot!"

"People don't have a value on life anymore," Hall said.

Calvin Lockridge 76, who lives on Raleigh Street four blocks from the shooting, said that two weeks ago, for the first time in his 33 years in Congress Heights, he saw officers patrolling in his neighborhood.

He said he prevents young men from hanging out on the corner near his house.

"I go there and tell them, 'Go, you got to leave,' " he said. "That's what the policemen have to begin to do -- move in . . . and disperse them."

Staff Writer Martin Weil contributed to this report.